Ray’s Pizza & Cedar’s Mediterranean @ Tech Square

About the Author.
Jasdeep Singh is a first year undergraduate chemical engineering student, from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He has only spent two months in the United States and is still getting accustomed to the culinary delights America has to offer. Previously, Jasdeep Singh was a guest writer for the critically acclaimed Timeout Magazine in Dubai publishing restaurant reviews bi-weekly intended for college students. Jasdeep spends his free time, trying out new restaurants within a mile radius of Georgia Tech and hopes to have a restaurant guide published for the Tech students, by the time he graduates.

Ray’s Pizza & Cedar’s Mediterranean @ Tech Square

College students are on a tight budget; they are always on the lookout for the best deals for their meals, looking to make two meals out of one. It is no surprise that such places do exist within a mile radius of Georgia Tech.There isn’t much choice in terms of cuisine yet each restaurant maintains a varied cuisine to entertain it’s patrons. There is one restaurant though which manages to pull a crowd everyday for all meals. Ray’s Pizza well positioned after the Barnes & Nobles, right after Starbucks coffee, protruding out of the college of management building. This restaurant offers Italian and Mediterranean cuisine and some interesting fusion dishes. Ray’s Pizza seems to be the perfect institution for college students. It is not too fancy, it has a good variety of cuisine and big portions.

Having been to Ray’s Pizza numerous times, I always seem to find myself in the middle of some form of festivity. The restaurant always seems to be flooded with people having a good time. It feels like you are in the heart of a college campus, everyone around you seems to be talking about their recent assignments and projects and if you happen to be sitting around a group of guys you won’t be surprised to overhear a heated discussion about the notorious ratio at Georgia Tech. It seems to be most crowded during their drink specials and the weekend. During these rush hours, their service seems to suffer and you could potentially end up waiting for over half an hour just for your appetizers. Do not be disheartened the food is well worth the wait or maybe after a certain point you are just so hungry that it just appeals to your taste buds. When the restaurant is filled to capacity it can take up to ten minutes just to be seated which is just enough time to soak in the atmosphere. The décor on the inside isn’t too fancy, very simple with hanging lights and simple table and chairs. The most fancy piece of décor is the bar, which seems to make up for the restaurants lack of extravagance. The décor outside isn’t as exquisite, there does not seem to have been much investment or maintenance into the outside except for the hanging plants. For the people seating outside is prepared to deal with stares from on looking pedestrians who seem to be extremely interested in your meal. Like every other college campus, underage drinking is an issue and Ray’s Pizza checks ID for everyone consuming alcohol. A small note about the service: Most of the servers at this institution happen to be fellow college students hence the service tends to get poor when it is crowded. The service does not disappoint otherwise yet sometimes they tend to be a bit slow to come take your order.

The patron is given the choice of choosing from their wide variety of pizzas with their plethora of toppings, calzones, Mediterranean meals or if you feel like trying something completely new you could try one of their fusion dishes.Ray’s Pizza also offers hubby bubbly for those who are interested, it has hookah in several flavors. The quality of hookah is varied, it turns out good sometimes and other times you can end up sending it back in four times and it still isn't worth a puff. Ray’s Pizza is definitely not the place to go for good hookah. A small word of warning, the portions are gigantesque so going to Ray’s famished, you are more than likely to end up going home with a parcel.

The calzone, a folded pizza, a dish, which I was unaware of until I got to Ray’s Pizza, is a great dish. I was a bit hesitant when I ordered the calzone but twenty minutes later when it reached my table I was not disappointed. I ordered the empire state calzone, which has cheese, mushroom and pepperoni. The presentation was very simple; it was just the calzone with a nice tomato based sauce on the side. When you take a bite you fall victim to the infusion of the perfect combination of cheese, tomato and bread, which compels you to keep eating until you cannot eat anymore. It is recommended to grab a drink while you are eating as it helps the food go down, as the meal can get a bit heavy given the big sized portions. Overall the calzone is a great dish for one to two people.

Hummus is a thick chickpea and tahini based dip, which is extremely popular in the Mediterranean and Middle East. It is a popular appetizer at Ray’s Pizza. They also have a hummus platter as an entrée. It has hummus dip as a base and is topped with a chicken, which is tomato based and tastes like it belongs in lasagna as opposed to mixed with hummus. This is one disaster dish, the chemical reaction between the chicken and the hummus is guaranteed to cause a gastronomical fiasco.

The pizza is by far the best culinary delight that Ray’s Pizza has to offer. The ratio of cheese to tomato sauce is perfect and is a pleasant change from the frozen pizza which college students are used to. They have a diverse range of pizzas, from gyro (Mediterranean) to Hawaiian Pizza. The pizza bread is freshly baked and the toppings are fresh urging you to take every bite, invoking guilt if you even leave the crust behind. They are flexible with their pizza servings, you can grab a slice to go or order a large pizza, and they even allow you to split a pizza half- and-half, allowing you to try out two great flavors at once.

Overall, Ray’s New York Pizza and Cedars Mediterranean is the perfect restaurant for a college campus. it offers a unique atmosphere where college students can relax and enjoy good cuisine. It is not too fancy and it’s menu is not perfect but it is the type of restaurant which a college student will find themselves at fairly often since it is centrally located. After their first couple of visits, they will know their way around their menu. They will grow immune to the slow service during rush hour and will learn to enjoy their wait at Ray’s Pizza and cherish their food.