Ray's Drive In — Restaurant in Everett

Funny Story; the last time I ate here, the wife and I were driving away from Providence after getting the extremely surprising news that we were pregnant with our second kid. We had a great deal of difficulty conceiving the first and we hadn't even started to try for a second. Providence wasn't even our healthcare system. We were leaving town that day for a business trip and my wife was throwing up uncontrollably so I rushed her to the ER where we received the happy news. That kid turns 17 this year. We were in happy shock and my wife needed food and this was right down the street. I'm not a big burger lover so I was unimpressed with my burger.

Over the weekend, I had to run an unplanned errand up into the city. We live on Seattle Hill and Everett is not where we hang out. We had dinner plans and it was mid-afternoon and I hadn't had time to eat so I was just looking for a hot dog to tide me over. Yelp said that this place had hot dogs so I dropped in. Unfortunately, the hot dogs were only on the kiddy menu but I noticed that they had a nice looking chicken strip basket on the regular menu so I ordered it. It was very good and a fair amount of food as well.

Second Funny story; I grew up in this area and Seattle is rabid about our tartar sauce. My parents are from Utah, the birth place of Fry Sauce. I dip just about everything I can in tartar sauce but when I'd go to UT, it was all about the fry sauce. I don't know if there are two regions in the world more obsessed with a specific dipping sauce. I've had a lot of crappy tartar sauce over the years and a lot of mediocre fry sauce as well. Rays has both of these sauces and they're both excellent. I'll give the edge to the tartar but it was close.

Lately, I've kind of developed an obsession with good drive in food. I've always loved Dick's Drive In but because of my disinterest in burgers, it wasn't a thing I was into previously. A couple of years ago I tried Pilchuck in Snohomish and really enjoyed it. I've been eating there regularly every since. I've tried a bunch of other drive-ins around the area as well. Most of them are not great. Rays was outstanding and I plan to eat there as much as possible in the future. The food is very...

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!!! 😍

I love me a good cheeseburger. I drive all over for work, so lately I've been on a quest for the PERFECT cheeseburger, methodically trying almost all of the smaller greasy-spoon type local burger joints from Stanwood to Lynnwood. RAY'S WINS!!! HANDS DOWN!!!!!

As soon as I pulled in to the parking lot I could smell the delicious burger smell wafting in the air. It was a little past lunch time, but it was still poppin'! After waiting only a minute or so in line, I ordered a Ray's Double cheeseburger. It was $5.40, which is a more than fair price for the quality of food, and compared to all the other places I've tried its close to the cheapest. After the first bite, and an audible "Mmmmmm... " I knew I had found burger nirvana. Plenty of delicious melted cheese, super flavorful beef patties cooked to perfection, and all the toppings were fresh and tasty. Also they didn't pile on a pound of lettuce just to make it look bigger. This baby was BIG, and heavy!! And the lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles & sauce were perfectly portioned so I wasn't picking out chunks of lettuce or extra slices of tomato. It was THE PERFECT cheeseburger.

Also, shout out to the guy at the counter who was super friendly, and the cooks who got my food out in about 5 minutes even though it was pretty busy. These peeps are awesome.

My quest is finished. Ray's is my new go-to burger spot. Obviously I'm serious about my cheeseburgers LOL, so trust me when I say RAY'S IS THE...

Well for now I have to give them a three star rating because ever since this covid-19 thing happened they now only except cards and not cash. As well as when I went there this last time after I had got my order and drove a few blocks away to the park to eat the fries were already cold and both my friend and my burgers were not what we had ordered and paid for and they just seemed thrown together. The lettuce was a soggy and wilted as well as the tomatoes didn't seem to fresh at all almost like everything had been sitting under a heat lamp for to long and forgotten about. And one of my favorite things to order they said they had been out of for a couple of days which is the deep fried mushrooms. But the chocolate shake where most definitely on point and very good, but I've never had a problem where I have ordered a shake from them tho. So that's why I have to give it a three star rating at the moment but I will say again I believe it is mostly because of this covid-19 stuff going on right now and the changes they are trying to make to still get business so I can't blame them to much but we will see as time goes by and see it it gets better as things hopefully...