Ray's on the River — Restaurant in Sandy Springs

**update! I was able to make contact with Sarah, a manager, the next day at Ray’s. She apologized extensively and reassured me the experience of my parents is not what they strive for and took a detailed account of what happened. She then had her manager call my parents personally and he invited them back for a “redo”. My parents went yesterday and had the experience of a lifetime. It was perfect weather, they were seated riverside near butterfly bushes where my mom was in her GLORY. They had a waiter vs a bartender (not that their bartender wasn’t great the last time- he did his best) but having a waiter who could help them navigate the menu and make suggestions and just, attend to them was fantastic! The manager came over and spoke with them. They couldn’t say enough positive things about this experience. This. This is what we’ve always heard about Rays. This is the experience my sister and I wanted them to have to celebrate their anniversary. Thank you, Rays, for making this “right” and for standing behind your reputation and service. ❤️

Original review: My sister and I purchased a gift card for my parents to go and enjoy a dinner by the river to celebrate their 40th anniversary. We were so excited for them to go today...only to be met with significant regret and total and complete disappointment. Upon their arrival, the hostess (at 1:45pm on a Tuesday) asked if they had a reservation. They did not, but the restaurant was nearly empty. The waitress frowned, VISIBLY frowned, and said "well- this is what I have available". The options shared were only bar seating. My mom asked about the river and the waitress simply said they could try to find a seat at the bar or at a booth at the bar. There was next to no one in the entire restaurant...my parents are older and have no idea how to make an online reservation...and they were seated, for their 200.00, 40th anniversary dinner in the middle of the day on a Tuesday...at the bar. If we wanted them to eat a steak in the dark we'd have sent them to Outback or Texas roadhouse. The allure of Ray's is the quality, the river, and the service...but not today. My mom ordered a steak but their steaks do not come with any sides (though my dad's seafood meal came with a side?). It wasn't even plated very nicely. The waiter did offer them a dessert once realizing it was their anniversary, but at that point...the experience was ruined. I called today immediately after speaking with my mom and dad, to speak with a manager, and was told after 5 minutes of holding that "the manager was in a meeting and another would be in any moment and would call me back within the hour". That was at 3:30pm...and it is now 6:40pm and no one has called me back. I suspect there won't be a return call. I will try again tomorrow. Beware- if you are considering purchasing a gift card for a family member, friend, client, or are suggesting this experience for someone who has never been...consider just about...

Took my wife out for our three year anniversary and I was really looking forward to the experience here. We arrived about 20 minutes before our reservation time and waited down by the river before we were supposed to be sat only to get the notification that our table was ready about 15 minutes after when our supposed reservation was scheduled for. When we went to the host stand we were then told it was actually going to be another 5 minutes because they only sent the notification to "make sure we were there" and that the table wasn't actually ready. Our server was trying to joke around with us right out of the gate, not a problem, just definitely not the vibe I was expecting for a romantic date night. Then while the server was taking our drink orders they listened to us both then turned back to me and said "old fashioned?" Which is not what I said. I informed them again which drink I wanted and they replied "are you sure?" as if to imply that as the man I should be getting the old fashioned. It was very unprofessional and strange. The food itself was very good and the rest of dinner was fine even though our server continued to try and joke with us while we were having our date. When it came to dessert the server said they were going to grab the menus then doubled back and said they would actually just tell us everything on the menu and we wouldn't be receiving one. At this point I just told the server we had looked up the menu before we came, and told them we would just have the praline basket. The server then told us "it's good, but it won't be what you're expecting" and continued to be weird about it. The dessert was good and exactly what we expected. All of that wasn't a terrible experience, just not the vibe and atmosphere that I was paying for. The end of the night is were it got bad. The valet LOST my keys. I gave them my ticket only to watch them look desperately in the valet stand for about five minutes with a light before running to my car (which was in view of where we were at) to check if they had left them in there. They had left my car unlocked for the entire dinner, which lasted about two hours. There is actively a sign in the parking lot stating to lock your vehicle as your possessions might get stolen. I eventually had to get down and help them find the keys. They were thrown into a pull out drawer, unlabeled, away from the other keys which were in a separate compartment entirely. This was entirely unprofessional and left a bad taste for the entire experience.

I would maybe recommend going here for something more casual like a lunch, but spending over 200 dollars for a "fine dining" type experience is no where near worth it with how this place is...

We went to Rays for a night out and we absolutely loved the setting! We moved here from Idaho and we’d really been looking for a restaurant with the same atmosphere and views as some of our favs in Boise. Rays definitely met the mark and exceeded! We sat outside overlooking the river and it was lovely. There was a live band and they had speakers outside - 10/10.

Unfortunately the service we received overall was truly some of the worst, and definitely not on par with a restaurant of this caliber. It took a long time to get drinks which, whatever, but then our server just sort of disappeared. He eventually took our dinner order and then we never saw him again until I chased him down so we could get another drink.

About 1 hour-1:10 into waiting for our food I found our server to ask what was up. He apologized and immediately went to “oh well worst case we’ll just comp some stuff for you.” And I said no, worst case we run out of time to eat (we had to get our kids by 11, our reservation had been at 745, it was now 915). And to that he said “oh yeah well worst worst case we’ll just pack it to go and comp the meal” and honestly, that just floored me. Instead of let me go check, the response was eh, we’ll get you a doggy bag - for lobster and halibut 😬

Eventually the food came and it was fine, would have been better probably had we not already had a blemish on our experience. We skipped dessert because we were afraid it also might take an hour. We paid our bill and just finished a drink by the river.

We weren’t looking for anything, but it was weird to me how he went on and on about comping a portion of our meal because of the wait and service, but then did nothing. We didn’t even get a sincere apology. I recognize the service industry is tough and market is hard to find help, but I was just so disappointed.

Based on reading reviews I have to believe that the service we experienced was not the norm and certainly not the expectation of the owners or managers. Given that well definitely give it a second chance - the ambiance was lovely, hopefully we have a better...