Ray's Italian Bistro — Restaurant in Midland

This place fills up quick so the earlier you get there the better.

Upon seating us at a booth, we were brought fresh bread with a roasted garlic, basil in olive oil dip. The bread has a nice salted butter taste that you can enjoy without using the dip. What I really liked about the dip is that the olive oil has a slight sweetness to it that you don't typically find in grocery-shelf olive oils. It doesn't leave your mouth feeling oily which is a sign of quality olive oil. We ordered two appetizers, the fried calamari and the stuffed mushrooms. Obviously the calamari is not fresh considering we are in Midland, TX, but it still had good flavor in the batter and most importantly, it was not rubbery. The marinara sauce tasted very fresh, not at all like it came from a jar.

For our meal we ordered two entrees and shared them since we were getting rather full on the fresh bread and appetizers. The Chicken Picatta in a lemon butter sauce was not bad, but not our favorite...mostly due to the capers. We are not big fans of capers. Once I picked all the capers from my portion, I enjoyed it as a meal with some zing to it.

The veal parmiagiana was pretty darn good. The veal itself was very tender and loaded with flavor. The pasta, I mean come on, it's terrific! If I had to pick something about this meal that I would change it would be the cheese melted on top. It was too solid for my liking. Would I get this again? You better believe it! But more than likely I'll try something new just to explore more options.

When we first got there, immediately after church, we were able to walk in and be seated. Within twenty minutes, the place was filling quickly with people starting to wait for an open seat. There were only two waiters for the entire restaurant so we ended up waiting a bit to get our check. While waiting we were able to observe that the man that seated us is the owner and he knew most of the families that came there to dine, calling some by name. It was nice to see that he was willing to help bring out fresh bread to newly seated tables and he always had a smile...

I am a former server with a years' experience at Rays. Many people may recognize my name on here. I can honestly say the food is wonderful, so if you do not care about morals or anything beyond the taste of the food, you can stop reading now.

I quit Rays New Years Eve of 2021 because Ray himself (the owner of the restaurant) asked that I stop writing "God Bless You" on my credit card slips that I gave back to customers after their meal. Keep in mind, Ray had seen me do this for the prior 10 months without incident, or even a word said. Nevertheless, I quit on the spot. The whole experience left me with a very bad taste in my mouth because I had grown to respect this man, and he seemingly turned on me in an instant. I felt singled out because of my faith, and this was all in front of the entire staff.

Since that time, I have eaten at Rays a handful of times until the last and final incident. I came into the restaurant during the slow time around 3:00 in the afternoon with my girlfriend. We had a wonderful meal, and on the way out she ran into some friends at another table. Ray was standing by the door and motioned for me to join him. He then proceeded to politely ask that I do not come into the restaurant and eat there anymore. He essential blacklisted me from coming back for no reason other than he does not like me, or my faith, or both. I cannot stress that over the course of my time working there, I was an outstanding employee and respected by the other staff. I enjoyed coming in from time to time after I quit, just to eat and see some old faces. When Ray asked that I stop coming to eat there, I was genuinely speechless.

It has taken me some time to reflect, and I even considered not writing this; However, I feel morally obligated to share my experience with the man behind the restaurant. So, with all that said... Yes, the food is great. But it may leave you with a bad taste in your mouth after a...

My family came in on a Thursday around 4:45pm. There were 3 other tables seated, pretty empty. We stood at the hostess stand waiting to be seated for several minutes, had a couple waitresses look at us but no one offered to seat us. My husband finally went and asked if we may seat ourselves and was told yes.

We sat at a table in the back near a side door. We had our two young boys with us, one of which was asleep the entire time. Our waitress was very sweet and friendly. Shortly after she took our drink and appetizer order an older gentleman (I'm assuming is the owner) approached our table. He was not friendly. He asked my husband if his name was Robert, my husband replied no and told him his name. He told us the table we were sitting at was reserved for Robert. My husband explained why we sat ourselves and asked if we needed to move, the gentleman replied no and just walked away. There was nothing on the table indicating it had been reserved. This made my husband and I both feel uncomfortable.

The food came out fast and was probably some of the best I've had in this area. When we were getting up and walking towards the main entrance to leave the same gentleman approached us and told us we needed to exit through the side door. He came and unlocked it for us, said thank you and locked back up behind us.

I have never in my life been made to feel so unwelcome and uncomfortable in a restaurant like that. We should have left after being passed over when we were waiting to be seated. I do not understand the reasoning for asking us to leave through the side door when everyone else that left went through the main entrance. It felt like he did not want us to be seen in his restaurant. Why? I have no clue???

We have heard such good things about this place and we were excited to try it. It was our 1st experience and although the food was delicious we will not...