Ray’s Diner

Great breakfast! Love the onion sausage. Grits are some of the best I’ve had in a restaurant.

My brother and I were hungry for some breakfast but didn’t want to wait in line for the crazy weekend rush at the normal breakfast places so we figure we’d give Ray’s a try and I am so happy we did!
Comparing it to other breakfast places I’d say it’s very comparable to Just Us Café. The prices and portions are on point. The menu isn’t as large but it has all the breakfast staples.
The service was super fast and friendly. My brother and I got our food to our table in about 10 minutes. Everyone talks about how they have the best biscuit in town and I’d have to agree!
This place is a new breakfast staple for us and I highly recommend it if you don’t want to wait in long lines and eat some amazing food

Service was great. Definitely a small town diner but it was delicious. I had fried chicken which had a great crust and flavor to it. Corn bread was off the chain!

This place is deceiving from the exterior. It looks scary and intimidating from the outside. Inside is pretty dirty and dingy so if you’re a germaphobe I wouldn’t eat here. I expect a little dinge in my diner experiences so I didn’t mind. That’s why I like eating at diners. The food was very good. Scrambled Eggs are real eggs not from a carton or powder form. The cooks have fun and are loud and energetic. The wait staff are very friendly and attentive. This place would be great if they kept it cleaner and updated the furniture.

My fiancée and I went there for breakfast on Sunday. This place is awesome. It’s a nice, cozy diner atmosphere. The service and food was amazing. Not to mention the prices are right. I saw that someone else said the waitresses were «racist»… I did not get that at all. Everyone was very nice and courteous. This is my new favorite breakfast spot.

Even though they are a little racist here you can’t deny the food is good. Baked chicken was dry as heck but I added hot sauce and onions and peppers in it to make it taste better. The mac&cheese and cabbage were good. The thing that made me give it 5 stars was the tomato based meatloaf omg OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! Glad I found this place while visiting Columbia! I’ll definitely be back especially for the meatloaf and since I know the waitress hates black people that much

lol screw a thirty minute wait at the fancy pants eggs up grill. This place was great. Good service. Ugly carpets. Fantastic breakfast. I’m sure dinner is too. Lovely homey vibe.

Thirty minute wait at egg up grill. no thanks!!! Decided to try this place instead and it did not disappoint. The food and service was outstanding. Step out of your comfort zone, get in your car and drive down to this unassuming location. I guaranteed zero disappointment!!!

This place is off the chain! They have the best grits I have ever had. The waitress said they slow cook them for over an hour and use heavy cream and butter. Their vegetarian omelet is full of fresh vegetables and is a man-​size meal. I meet friends here for breakfast and lunch frequently. I have never had a bad experience.

This is my first time at Rays. I decided to try the short stacks pancakes and onion sausage. It was extremely good! I will definitely come back and bring my family with me. The staff was excellent also.

The place is sort of hidden in an Autozone parking lot so keep an eye out for that. It looks sort of strange from the outside with the tinted windows and all but you should definitely go inside they aren’t hiding anything scary.
The menu is simple for breakfast, they have what you’d expect with addition of fish grits and salmon cakes for breakfast. I ordered the corn beef hash and the lady ordered pancakes.
I order the same thing every time I go out for breakfast because corn beef hash is such a pain in the butt to make so I generally only eat it when I go out. This is to say I’ve had a many plates of corn beef hash.
Anyway the corn beef hash was the usual underwhelming but satisfying version of diner folklore — making it from scratch is just so much better. My eggs, ordered sunny side up were a little less cooked than I expected — some of the whites were still uncooked but it didn’t scare me away but if I were to order again I’d ask for over easy — afterall sunny side up is an art! The pancakes are HUGE and spectacular — I want some right now; to me they were the star of the meal along side the grits which were creamy and equally delicious.
This place probably hasn’t changed very much in many years — including their recipes which is fantastic! It definitely has that cosy outdated feeling to it and it’s the closest to New England Greek diner breakfast that I’ve found down here.

My first time here was 10/​28/​2015. It felt like a good, southern coffee shop. Everyone in there is so friendly! The food was awesome! My boyfriend and I were stuffed… he never gets full, so we’ll definitely be back.

Really don’t know what you can add that hasn’t been said by fellow Unilocalers about Rays Diner but I’ll give it a shot. When I was younger me and my neighbors would frequent the former Frank’s to talk about current events or complain about gas prices. So coming back here I had some reservations about how good it would be if at all. When I came here my first time I noticed a lot of first responders eating at the counter and back tables which was a good sign. So I would stop in from time to time for tea or water when I was working in the area. Today I finally tried their breakfast and it did not discount me in the least. The biscuits were grand and the grits and liver pudding really filled me up and got me moving on this cold day ! I’ll definitely come back and try some more items when I get the time. On a side note I noticed on Facebook Rays Diner was featured as the one of top 13 diners to visit in are lovely state.

Heard about the restaurant at work and with the new dinner hours decided to give it a try. The place is clean and way bigger than it looks from the outside. The special was the meatest spaghetti I have outside of homemade. The hamburger steak was juicy and covered in cooked onions. So good. The meat and 2 or 3 are huge portions that fill you up so much there was no room for dessert. Wanted to try their peach cobbler. Hope I have room next time. Will definitely be going back.

Think of your favorite biscuit. Do it now. I’ll wait. The biscuit that you’re thinking about? It’s crap. Ray’s biscuit is better. I would marry that biscuit.
I went here to meet friends for breakfast. I seriously questioned their judgement when I finally found the place. (I drove by it the first time since it’s tucked in the back corner of a tiny strip mall and the worn out sign on the street used to read Frank’s Diner. Wonder what happened to Frank…) The outside is super dinery and nothing special. Inside isn’t really anything special to look at either but everything else is extra special.
The staff are friendly and welcomed us warmly. When my friends arrived they greeted them like old friends and started playing with their kid who smiled and enjoyed the banter. He’s ridiculously adorable.
We arrived around 10am and had breakfast. Maybe I shouldn’t call it breakfast because I would eat this any time of day, on any day and twice on Sunday (and probably quickly die of a heart attack) because it’s that dang delicious. I ordered the country fried steak breakfast because… gravy. It comes with eggs which I got scrambled and with cheese, the creamiest grits I’ve ever eaten (and took half home because the portions are huge), and a biscuit so light and fluffy that it would make you slap your mama for giving you crappy biscuits your whole life. You’ll never go back to another biscuit.
Just go eat it. Eat it all. It’s heaven on a plate. Also, super cheap. I’m in love.

Great breakfast spot in Columbia, SC!
I had the double meat breakfast. Everything was fresh, hot, and delicious.
The scrambled eggs were perfect, the bacon was crispy, the turkey sausage was tasty, and the home fries were excellent.
Fast and friendly service finished it off for a great experience. Will be back next time I travel to Columbia!

Rays Diner is clean, friendly and it has the best biscuits I have ever eaten in my life!
All the food is fresh, and the grits are creamy and perfect.

Don’t b fooled. When we went there the folks in the kitchen seemingly didn’t give a fuck. The price is right though if youre looking for some cheap cheap mediocre food.

This place is a hidden gem. The food was great. Only had the hotdog basket for my 1^st time being there, and it was really good. You get a lot of food for your money, and the service was great as well. The staff is friendly to everyone that walks in, and they ensure that your food is fresh. My wife is a fan of this place that sells hotdogs back in her hometown, and even though she didn’t admit that Ray’s hotdogs were better, I could tell that she really liked them because she ate it all. Will definitely return. I want to try their breakfast menu soon.

We ended up at Ray ‘s on a Sunday morning for a late breakfast. It’s a fabulous little cozy place with an old school «diner» feel, but with delicious southern cuisine.
Ray ‘s is tucked into a small shopping plaza on Two notch road, next to an auto parts store. It’s very clean inside, and has a lot of Chicken man paintings everywhere. You can tell this place is a well kept secret favorite, because people were coming in droves after church was over.
My significant other had the country fried steak with eggs and home fries. Unfortunately, I was unable to try it because he nearly licked his plate, even though there was plenty of it. I ordered a deluxe breakfast with two eggs over easy, pancakes, and bacon. The eggs were cooked perfectly, and the pancakes were delicious, just like my grandma’s. My boyfriend doesn’t love pancakes, but he was happy to help me finish mine.
We loved this place, the service was awesome, and the owner even stopped by and said hello. We will definitely be back.