A Charlotte, North Carolina, restaurant worker was caught on video appearing to prepare food on the ground outside the establishment.

Footage recently provided to WJZY appears to show the at Tokyo Grill & Buffet preparing food amongst garbage cans and filth. The video was apparently taken in May.

Tokyo Grill reportedly passed three health inspections this year, with their current health score being a 91.5. Their score can drop up to three points for preparing food on the ground, the Mecklenburg County Health Department told the local station.

A health inspector apparently made a visit to the Charlotte restaurant on Thursday, after being made aware of the video.

Toyko Grill’s general manager reportedly claimed that a supervisor wasn’t on duty that day to stop the workers from making food outside. The Health Department noted that not having a manager on site is another violation.

The Charlotte restaurant published a statement on Facebook Tuesday to apologize for the disturbing incident and explain further. A managing partner claimed that they hired a “new, untrained” employee that went outside to peel onions because they burned his eyes.

“As soon we found out this we already terminating him,” the partner said in the post. “He no longer works for us and we replaced the kitchen manager as well.”

The manager said the employee washed the onions before storing them in a refrigerator. They claimed Toyko Grill has since implemented a supervision policy and will ensure that food is served to code.

“As one of the restaurant’s owners and frequent diner, we always take food serving safety very seriously and I apologize for the former employee’s actions,” the managing partner said.

[Featured Image: WJZY/screenshot]