Nick D.'s Profile

This is pretty much the most disappointing place to eat in Austin.  For being on the Hipstersection as I like to call it, (6th and Lamar) you would expect this place to be at least HALFway decent, right?  Nope.

You go in, you see they have good beer and you think "Ooh! this place is pretty good!," but then everything kind of goes downhill from there.  You look at the menu and see all the exotic sounding food like Gruyère cheese on everything, and salads with nuts and dried cranberries that  food snobs would go apeshit over.  You order your food, the most pretentious sounding patty melt ever, and after biting into it for the first time, you wonder why your plate did come with a banner reading: "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here."  No flavor whatsoever.  You move onto the French Fries.  You can taste salt in between each bit of blood you get from the fries tearing apart the roof of your mouth (Whoever heard of a potato-related injury?) leading to all sorts of unpleasantness.  Then you get your check, and wonder why you didn't go to Torchy's Tacos instead, when you could get 10x the delicious for half the price.  

In conclusion, 24 is IHOP for rich white people.  But even IHOP can make their food taste good on occasion.  I would have given it one star, but the people that work there are nice...gotta say SOMEthing good about the place, y'know?

This place is the bomb diggity in just about every respect.  The staff is hospitable in just about every respect, and it really shows in the quality of the food as well.  For first timers, I recommend getting the vegetarian sampler (as an omnivore, I will say Yes, Virginia, there IS such a thing as a good vegetarian dish!) as a good introduction to the whole "experience."  Additionally, the spiced tea is AMAZING (which they even serve with REAL sugar too!).

Warning:  You may find it difficult to stop eating once you start here.

Came here I needed a good dinner to cheer me up, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.  They skimp on the chips and salsa, but you need to remember that the main course (in my case, shrimp enchiladas with salad, rice, and beans) are the main attraction her e.

I was really impressed with the quality of everything overall, especially when you consider that it's basically a blink-and-you-miss hole in the wall that could be mistaken for a quilt shop judging by the outside decor. The prices on everything are rather reasonable too.  Would definitely come back here again.

My experience here felt rather awkward.  I came for lunch expecting just a normal Mexican joint, and as soon as I got there in my ten year old car with a cracked windshield, army surplus tshirt, and year old Chuck Taylors, I felt like I was just an indigent beggar from off the street.  The ambiance is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY over the top; all it was missing was a string quartet.

You get two salsas.  One is rather boring and only tastes decent once you add some of the hot sauce to it that's conveniently at your table and the other is a pretty decent Roasted Chipotle.  I ended up with their chicken chile relleno, which had the consistency of tuna fish (Don't mean this negatively, just not expected in Latin American cuisine).  Overall, the food was alright.  Nothing worth gushing about, but nothing that would make me wish that Jesus would hurry up and return to Earth either.

Family dining at it's finest in Kent, but also what I think contributes to many of Ohio's expanding waistlines as their portions are HUMONGOUS.  It doesn't just serve fried, fatty food, it revels in it.  Every time I ate here, it was the only meal I had the whole day.   I'll definitely say that it's the best place to go to when you're having a terrible day and wish to drown your sorrows with food.  Certainly not for the health-conscious, but when you have the Co-Op downtown that wants $4 for a bunch of bananas, I'll take this instead.

I am going to do two reviews of this place, as it changes dramatically depending on when you go.

Review 1:  For dinner, Ray's is very solid.  I have yet to find a bar that rivals the beer selection anywhere else.  The portions are VERY generous (strongly recommend the pasta with sausage and peppers), and the overall atmosphere is very pleasant.

Review 2: This is one of the worst places you could go on the weekend for nightlife.  All the frat boys who aren't still passed out from the previous evening's Bud Light, Cornhole, and Date Rape Extravaganza all flock here to get into fights about Browns v. Steelers and brag about how much they've manscaped in the past week.  Also, the bar TVs will constantly be playing some kind of sport; they will be playing GOLF before Comedy Central is on there.  In addition, the staff is so overrun with orders that you won't get served for a long while.

Overall, I do like this place a lot; I just hate seeing it devolve into what it is on Friday/Saturday evenings.

When I moved to Kent back in 2007, I was hard up for a good Mexican restaurant and found that I lived right across the street from this place.  So I tried it, and as a Texan who has experienced much more Mexican food than your average Ohioan has, I was really disappointed.  Everyone gushed to me about this place, but I told them it tasted like it was made by white people who use too much grease and get their refried beans out of a can.  Not to mention they use that cheap, thin cheese sauce that guarantees a heart attack.  If this is all that's available like it was to me, go for it, otherwise for those with discerning taste should drive to Cleveland for some passable Mexican food.

Yep, don't really see why a lot of other record shops in Austin even bother...I will say though that their DVD section is kind of limited and they could have a better parking situation (especially with the construction currently taking place there) BUT if you want it, they'll have it 9.9 times out of ten.

Everything here is just a big ball of delicious.  Their homemade salsa is (dare I say the best in Austin that I've had so far?), and they can cook the best frickin' chile relleno you've ever had in your life in less than five minutes.  Also, I'm pretty sure that the Ode to Joy of Beethoven's 9th was inspired by their buffet (with all sorts of stew meats, taco fixins, chile rellenos, and more.  Follow it up with a very solid rice pudding for dessert and you might have to be rolled out of there like that one girl from Willy Wonka.

This is THE quintessential midwestern diner, complete with waitresses that call you "hon" or "sug."  The service is impeccable, and the food is the perfect morning-after cure for those nights of debauchery.

Oh, and their Chocolate Puddiing pie is amazing.  If I still lived in Kent, I'd take trips there just for that bit of nectar and ambrosia.