Ray's Harvest House — Restaurant in Albany

Sitting by itself in a tangle of side streets right next to the highway, this humble little kitchen in Albany OH (Go Spartans!) serves down-home goodness on every plate.

Let me acclimate you first. They have a large parking lot, so no worries there. Enter and choose your own seat with booths in the front and tables in the back. I have seen groups of 6+ dining there, but I would call ahead and/or maybe plan for a less-than-lunch-or-dinner-rush-hour visit if you want to bring the whole squad. Once you are seated, relax and a waitress will arrive to provide table service. From the front, rest rooms are straight back, then left, and then left again. You do not need to wait for or ask for your check, when you are done just head to the front counter and pay your bill. Do not skip dessert and always tip your servers!

Now let's talk breakfast food. The fluffiest pancakes...I am talking inch thick, maybe more. Three of them come in an order of pancakes, so we are talking hot and buttery and around 5-6" tall with something like a 7-8" diameter. A literal cake-sized stack of fluffy flapjacks. You might want to start with just one and then work your way up with each visit.

Now let's talk dinner. Every day has a special and you will never go wrong with the special be it meatloaf or noodles or roast meat. Sometimes I like a good burger. It doesn't have to be expensive or fancy, the cook just needs to care a little bit to sear it just-so and get it to the "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT" stage of beefy flavor. Ray and her cooks put a little love in their work and you'll taste the difference. My burger of choice is just bun, burger, bacon, bbq sauce, onion rings, and that's it, burger perfection. Their fishtail sandwich is the larger, tastier version of deep-fried fish, hot and crispy. The taco salad will fill your belly with some fresh veggies. Oh, and the brisket-stuffed potato skins are terrific! I could go on, but we need speak about desserts.

Every day you will find a selection of 8 to 10 flavors of homemade pie and cake and you should try every one of them before picking a favorite. The pig-picking cake (whipped cream, pineapple, moist cake...so good) is my personal favorite. The fresh pies alone make Ray's a great food stop.

Ray is an awesome lady with an attentive, hard-working staff and an awesome, down-home restaurant with great food, amazing desserts, and prices that are quite reasonable so you can fill your belly without emptying your pockets. I know I sound like a salesman, but I am just a fan. Guess who has 2 thumbs up and visits Ray's 2-3 times per week? Me! Highly...

So, we were driving around in Albany, enjoying the Christmas lights and our kids asked if we could find a place to get some ice cream. A quick Google search led us to Ray’s Harvest House. As we drove by the first time, it looked like it was closed. However, the “Open” light was on and there were a few cars in the drive.

Since it was 7:15pm on a Friday, we figured it might be a wait but worth it given the time of the year. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked in and observed 2 seated tables. The woman behind the counter told us to find a seat, which we did. The kids being a little rambunctious, we picked a booth away from everyone else. We sat in the main “dining room” against the wall. Which means we were probably Table 6 of 7 tables.

That was the last interaction we would have with anyone in the establishment. Nothing. No water brought to the table, no menus, no daily specials, no server, no acknowledgement that we were current and potential customers.

I think we would have been more understanding if we were told that they were too busy or understaffed or trying to close or anything. Never been completely disregarded and ignored before. It was an eye-opening experience. We won’t tell people to avoid Ray’s Harvest House, but we will suggest options we know to be...

Stopped by yesterday evening around 6 and was very disappointed. Ordered cheese sticks,bbq plate with fries and slaw and ultimate grilled cheese with Mac and cheese. The cheese sticks came to the table still frozen in the middle with 4 cheese sticks stuck in a clump had to take back up because the waitress didn't check on us we waited 10 minutes and she never came back so they replaced the cheese sticks and they were fine 2nd time but it's been around 35 minutes at this point we got our main plates in about 50 minutes after ordering and it was not worth the wait. The bbq was not that good fries were cold and greasy the slaw was good it was homemade the mack and cheese was microwaved. The grilled cheese was not ultimate added ham for 1.50 and 1 pice of deli ham was on it . Got 2 pieces of pie and wasted that money we got them to go coconut cream and chocolate cream the 2 pieces looked very beat up put already melted whipped cream on the chocolate the coconut was not any better. I would have never sold them 2 pieces of pie to anyone I wish I could have gotten pictures 38 dollars...