Lil' Ray's Restaurant — Restaurant in Long Beach

Alright y’all, let me break it down for you in plain ol’ shrimp-boil Southernnese: Lil Ray’s Po-Boys & Seafood ain’t tryin’ to be the next big thing—it already is. This joint don’t need neon signs or avocado foam to get your attention. What it does got is seafood so fresh it probably voted in the last Biloxi city council election.

You roll up on Courthouse Road and it looks like your cousin Earl finally opened up that dream fish shack—except Paw Paw runs the fryer and every bite tastes like Ariel herself kissed it with Tony Chachere’s. This ain’t Instagram food—it’s real food. Food with stories. Food that hugs your insides and whispers, “You’re home, Bubba.”

Now let me walk you through the gospel from the coast.

Appetizer? Two pounds of boiled crawfish. Minimum. Season’s been playin’ hard to get, but I ain’t lettin’ that pot pass me by. Red, spicy, steamin’, and makin’ your nose run just enough to feel alive. You pop those tails, suck them heads, and wonder why you ever trusted anyone north of I-10 to cook seafood.

Main course? Oh, I went full Gulf royalty: fried green tomatoes stacked like Mardi Gras doubloons, grilled shrimp layin’ on top like they just clocked out of a beachside gym, and a remoulade sauce so good you’ll consider drinkin’ it with a straw. Fries on the side, crispy enough to survive a hurricane evacuation.

Dessert? Bread pudding. Because I spent all day wanderin’ through fish tanks and gettin’ yelled at by gulls like a one-man Disney short, and I earned that warm, custardy miracle drizzled in caramel. This ain’t dessert, it’s therapy.

Lil Ray’s is more than a stop—it’s a Southern baptism in butter, seafood, and soul. Come hungry. Leave full. And remember: real food don’t need no...

If you are interested in checking menu Online, make sure you are on the right one. Apparently, the menu in Gulfport is different than Long Beach, which was very disappointing for me. We chose to eat there due to great reviews on poor boys. I also saw they had a Mahi salad on the menu, and thought wow, that is what I want. Before sitting down, I read the Specials Board... and a Mahi Platter was on the menu, so I was even more excited about the Mahi salad. Looking over then menu, I did not see it. I asked our sever about it and she stated that was on the Gulfport menu, but I could order the platter. Hmm Platter/Salad... some how not the same. Very disappointed. I scanned the menu, reading the reviews on poor boys, I chose the crab cake poor boy. Yeah, not sure how they have such great reviews for poor boys, the bread was like rubber and very chewy. (I would guess it was heated in a microwave as chewy as it was). Service was great, and food promptly served. I did not care for meal, however my husband had the grill chicken salad and thought it was OK. Not sure if we will go back. I was also a little disappointed that there was no offer to make the salad possible, since Mahi mahi was one of the specials... I think it could have been an easy fix to sub the tuna for mahi mahi,,, after all mahi was the...

First Friday of lent and we decided to try something new. We’ve been to Bull’s, Harbor View, Camphouse and the Daiquiri place. All are very good choices but we had never been to Lil’ Rays. We walk in to a sign that reads “Please seat yourself “. We did and 5 minutes later our son gets up to go get us some menu’s so that we could be deciding on what we want. Another comes in around this time and sit down on the other side of the restaurant. Within a few minutes a server ask them for their drink order. Shortly afterwards another family walks in and sits down right across from us. After a short while one of the their kids ask for menu. The server immediately grabs them menus and takes their drink order. This was when our experience with Lil’ Rays ended. We promptly got up and left. No server tried to apologize or even acknowledged our presence. My money is better spent on people and places that value each and every customer. You think that we probably went when they were super busy, you would be wrong. Busy, maybe but normal looking for a Friday night. When we walked in there was probably 6 tables for us to...