Ray's - BBQ, Brews & Blues — Restaurant in Grayling

We thoroughly enjoyed our dining experience, as the quality of our food remained consistently excellent, and our server displayed commendable professionalism. However, we feel compelled to assign a two-star rating due to an unfortunate incident involving a lack of courteousness from a staff member and a restriction on the presence of service animals, limited only to the vicinity of the picnic tables by the river.

During our visit, we brought along our two service animals, adorable puppies undergoing training, to accompany us at dinner. We opted for a patio seating, placed our beverage orders, and initially encountered no issues. Regrettably, our pleasant evening took a turn when our server, accompanied by another staff member, approached us in a boisterous manner to inquire about the nature of our dogs. Although such an inquiry is typically acceptable, the staff members conduct was loud enough to draw the attention of neighboring diners, who even expressed their apologies to us for the disruption. Additionally, the staff member exhibited a discourteous demeanor and audaciously implied that one of our dogs had bitten our servers ankle, a claim our own server promptly refuted. Following this encounter, the server and her associate withdrew, and a few minutes later, the manager appeared and requested that we relocate to the picnic tables by the river, in accordance with the owner's wishes. Consequently, we decided to remove the puppies from the situation and proceeded with our meal.

Upon the conclusion of our dining experience, I expressed my desire to speak with the manager in order to communicate my sentiments about the incident. However, I was informed that the manager was preoccupied and preparing to depart for the evening, thereby suggesting that I should attempt to reach out at a later time.

All I intended to convey to the manager was the importance of responding with kindness, as one can never truly grasp the challenges another person may be facing. Unfortunately, instead of being treated with even the slightest modicum of respect, I find myself compelled to document these experiences in my review.

This particular occurrence left us, veterans, seeking to enjoy a meal during the Fourth of July weekend, feeling embarrassed by the behavior of the staff members and compelled to elucidate to our families that the two new puppies we had acquired are, in fact, service animals specifically trained to assist with undisclosed...

Ok so like, this place has great reviews and me and my lady were inclined to try it on our vacation out here.

I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted. We were trying to get a mix of things ribs and brisket. but they didn’t have a combo for it so I was trying to figure out how to order in a way to get both now I was confused and not sure what I wanted so I was kinda all over the place. You know how it is to not know what you wanna do with a waitress waiting at ur table.the panic . The waitress was NOT HAVING IT. She looked really irritated and fed up with us. I was not trying to be difficult and was polite and apologetic. Still. We decided to get the sympathy for the devils eggs. To start while we figured out what we were gonna do .Which is like bacon jam and green onion. They laid them mfs on a quarter inch bed of salt. Now I’ve worked in food service. I know what you do with a customer you don’t like. I did nothing to warrant that. I was polite and courteous but the waitress just didn’t like us for some reason or was having a really bad and decided to have someone take it out on us. Never seen a restaurant lay anything on bed of salt for anything taste or presentation wise. It was purely to get back at us for simply nothing at all. So that was the first big thing. I kept it to myself not wanting to start anything or be that customer at the restaurant.

We figure out what we wanted: half spare ribs with garlic potato’s, potato salad. It comes with cornbread. A pound of brisket(pulled) A bowl of lobster mac and cheese.

The only thing what was good was the garlic potato’s and the lobster mac. Potato’s were perfect and garlicky. They were great. Brisket was tasteless and dry, ribs had a nice bark but the bark didn’t taste like anything and they were dry. The potato salad offends real potato salad because calling it potato salad is an absolute joke. Cornbread was tasteless, dry, and purely disappointing. Don’t even get me started with the sauces. The regular bbq was mid. The spicy one was ok. The honey mustard sucked and their 4th sauce get this….its ketchup. This place is nice on the inside and nice in the outside but the food. The sauces. And the service was some of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen. Won’t ever stop here again and I don’t recommend it. Save yourself the 80 dollars and the time and go stop across the street at spikes and get yourself...

Atmosphere was very nice, sat outside by the river and it was beautiful. A party of more than 4 came out and the waiter yelled at them when they were trying to put 2 tables a little closer. He could have been a bit more considerate and approached it way differently. (Coming from someone who has worked in the fine dining industry for years.) Service was ordinary, our waiter did not seem to be happy to be there, almost annoyed by his tables. Ordered the Pulled pork platter with mac & cheese, hot BBQ beans and cornbread with honey butter to share with my husband as he just had an outpatient medical procedure at the Grayling Hospital. Before he even put the plate down I saw hiw DRY the Pulled Pork was. There was absolutely not a drop of juice in that pork. The mac and cheese was the best of the platter but it was noodles with cheese poured over it. Isn't mac and cheese supposed to be baked? The hot bbq beans tasted like chili with scraps of meat in it with beans, including lime beans?? Who does that? Nothing to write home about. The Pulled pork was so dry you really had to douse it with sauce just to eat. Honestly the worst Pulled pork I have ever eaten anywhere. The cornbread was was a bit dry, not warm and the honey butter was so cold you could not even put it on the bread. The waiter was shocked when we said we were done and even asked 2x, dude do you not realize how bad this pork is?? I CANNOT speak to the other BBQ meats but coming from the industry for years I would never serve that from the kitchen cook nor as a server, serve that to my customers. If I worked there I would tell the kitchen that is not ok to serve and would be honest with my customers, they appreciate that! You could have out it in some juice to rehydrate it, even at home people know that. So disappointed as we have been looking forward to going there. Not sure if we will be back, but definitely left a bad taste in our mouth. Just...