Fan favorite Colorado Springs diner sits on this week’s Restaurant Roundup golden throne

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - This week, a fruit fly situation led to a failed health inspection for one local juice bar. Meanwhile, a fan favorite diner is topping the charts!

Low scores:

OLA Juice & Coffee Bar on Garden of the Gods Road sits at the bottom of the barrel this week with nine violations, including ample dead and alive fruit flies, employees caught not washing their hands after touching dirty dishes, and no sanitizer was readily available.

We stopped by, but the manager on duty deferred to the owner.

Over email, OLA reps were happy to tell us the restaurant passed its re-inspection.

Their quote "standard industry fly-trap unit simply needed its adhesive strips replaced." We're told that was addressed immediately. According to OLA, the restaurant's sanitizer situation has been fixed, and they started hyper-focusing on hand washing.

Now let’s get to those high scores!

The Modern Market on Powers Boulevard and Bird Dog BBQ on Centennial Boulevard both rack up high scores.

Zapata Mexican Taco Shop, over on the East side of town on Dublin Boulevard, didn't get a single violation on its recent routine health inspection. 

Taking the golden throne:

King's Chef Diner, where the portions are certainly king-sized, and the vibes are just as immaculate as the kitchen!

“It’s a very open community with the customers here, I would say,” said server Kasia Shumway. “Good connections with the customers - one of them changes my tires!”

This Downtown diner is Colorado Springs royalty, dating back to the 1950s, and its cleanliness is just as historic.

We asked owner Gary Geiser if the restaurant’s open kitchen helps them stay accountable.

“Oh, 100%,” Gary answered. “A lot of the customers come up here; they get to see the performance.”

Gary’s been at this for a while, and he has some words of wisdom for restaurants that might not do as well on their health inspections:

“Don’t get mad or discouraged - the health department is not the enemy,” Gary said. “The health department is there to give you support, give you guidance, show you how to get through those challenges correctly.”

Keep an eye out for the KRDO13 Restaurant Roundup awards at your favorite restaurant to know that the kitchen inside is clean.

Click here for a look at all the most recent health inspection scores.

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