GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- TV host and chef Robert Irvine didn’t mince words.

His initial impression of Caribbean restaurant Chez Olga, owned by the mother and daughter team of Olga and Dodlie Benoit in the popular Eastown neighborhood of Grand Rapids, was not good.

He thought the colors were mismatched. He thought he was in a Jamaican restaurant.

“The restaurant itself had no identity, no personality," said the host of Food Network’s popular “Restaurant: Impossible," which is now in its 15th season after a three-year hiatus.

"It had nothing to do with Olga or where she was from or what she was trying to do in there,” he said.

And the food?

“The food? Well, you know, the food was not even mediocre at best."

TV viewers will get a chance to see it all play out when the episode entitled “Caribbean Catastrophe” airs at 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3 on the Food Network. It was filmed May 19-20, 2019 with a budget of $10,000 to pay for renovations and bring in a designer and project manager. He used many local volunteers.

What can people expect from the episode?

According to a release from the show’s producers:

"Robert Irvine heads to Chez Olga in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the struggling Caribbean restaurant’s dingy dining room, bland menu, and terrible kitchen are tearing apart the mother and daughter who run it. Robert must completely revamp the look and menu as well as get the owners to work as partners, or this restaurant is sure to fail.”

In our interview, Irvine said:

“As nice as Olga and her daughter were.... I think they just lost their way, trying to do something they couldn’t achieve.”

"Everybody thinks it’s easy to open a restaurant. Sorry, they do. It’s not necessarily that easy, as well they found.”

He said we would learn more about Olga, who is originally from Haiti, and her story. Her restaurant has been open for about 10 years.

We stopped by Chez Olga this week to see some of the before and after looks at the restaurant. Gone are the yellow walls. The interior is a teal motif with black shutters near the kitchen entrance. The tin ceiling is exposed. Two murals are on the walls.

Olga said she could not say much about the episode before it aired.

But the menu looked exactly the same as before.

Irvine said he was blown away with the response when show producers asked for local volunteers.

“Grand Rapids was great,” he said. “Out of all the ‘Restaurant Impossibles’ we have done, we had the biggest response there of volunteers. Obviously, the community was amazing.”

He said viewers will be happy with the end result.

“I always want to make sure that when we give it back, that it’s as if I would want that restaurant myself,” Irvine said.

He feels the show is his calling.

“My whole role in society is to try and bring back small business rejuvenation,” Irvine said.

He said restaurants fail because of dirty kitchens or family squabbles and even mismanagement of money. “Or all three,” he said. "My job, my calling, is to help small businesses. The lessons in ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ is a lesson for any small business. The business part of the show is relevant to all of them.”