Ray's Pizza — Restaurant in Surprise

I came here on Tuesday, Feb 18th. It was my first time, and I wanted to experience their pizza after having visited Deno’s and Little Sicily. To start I ordered the fried mushrooms (12 pieces for $9.95); and the pizza, 15” size, with sausage; onions; and red peppers. It is a bit frustrating to only choose between 15” and 17” size pizzas. Nothing smaller is offered, and that makes pizza by the slice your option if you want less. How then do you choose your toppings I’m not sure, or you’re resigned to what they’re offering by the slice? I took a seat and waited. There’s plenty of seating available for all size of groups. The fried mushrooms came, and they weren’t that good. I should have stopped after the second which was all breading and no mushroom. For some reason I thought it was just one, but there were two or three others. And they were slightly burned. Learn and live, and hope the pizza is better. The pizza arrived, and looked fairly good. I look for four things when it comes to a good, if not great pizza. First is the crust. This pizza had a good crust. Second is the cheese. The cheese was fine. Third is the sauce. The sauce on the pizza was ok. It wasn’t something that offered good flavor; and they could have added a touch more sauce. Fourth and lastly are the toppings. The onions and red peppers were good. Where the pizza lost me was in the sausage that was small crumbled pieces that had no flavor like Italian sausage. I had almost two slices before boxing the leftovers for home. It’s rather pricey for 15” as the pizza starts at $17… adding $2.75 for each ingredient after cheese… totaling $25.25. To drink I had a medium fountain for $3. Total + tax came to $41.45. There are three pizzerias in this area. This one has a menu that says “Best in Phoenix,” “Arizona’s Best Pizza,” and a heading with FAMOUS on a crown 👑 I can’t believe this is authentic New York style pizza. I’m at a loss with this experience, and would prefer the other two pizzerias over Ray’s. You decide for yourself should you dine here. I may give them another...

I am asking myself why I’ve never visited this location before. I’ve been to Rays in Glendale many times, but never remember this location is here. Located in a shared shopping center with Albertsons there is plenty of parking. The location is small, but offers a good amount of booths and tables. You order at the counter then they bring out your food. We ordered a large pepperoni and hot wings along with a few drinks. Service was great and our food came out pretty fast. Everything looked delicious. The wings were steaming and sauced well. The wings are fried which we love and gives them a crispy bite. Pizza is cheesy, greasy (not overly) and plenty of toppings. Perfect. Crust was good and didn’t flop down when picked up. Would be perfect reheated in the oven for added crisp. We left full and happy. The location was clean, no frills pizza spot. They do have one tv I believe, but we were too busy eating to watch it....

Finally, good pizza in Arizona! After so many letdowns, I thought I'd give up on AZ pizza all together. We were driving around last night and decided to try Ray's for dinner. I don't order AZ pizza anymore, so I ordered the baked ziti. It comes with a salad and garlic bread. The salad was fresh, the salad dressing was delicious, and the garlic bread was even better. Our food came out and I tried a bite of pizza. Wow, that was so much better than typical AZ pizza! The crust and cheese were just right. My baked ziti was good, but the sauce was just okay. Overall, I give it 4 stars and I'll definitely order a pizza next time (with a salad and garlic bread!)

Oh, and I read someone's comment about staff not wearing masks when they were there. On my visit, all staff were wearing...