Ray's on the River

Beautiful upon walking in - love the blue fountain outside. We didn’t get great seats even though we booked our reservation about a month in advance- would have been nice to see the water from our table. Once we finished, we did walk outside to enjoy it. Food - two of us had the 14oz NY strip and shrimp (8/10). The steak had good flavor and tender. The sauce on the shrimp was too spicy for me and the shrimp was like warm on arrival, almost cold. The side of Brussel / cauliflower I’d rate a 4/10. Cauliflower was good but Brussels too oily and not crispy enough. Side of praline sweet potato I’d rate 5/10. I make better sweet potatoes. It had a strong flavor almost of orange juice, and it could have used more marshmallows. Our friends liked their dish - pecan ruby red trout and the jumbo lump crab cakes. Dinner doesn’t come with bread - you can pay extra for that. I think our server was new - he seemed very nervous. Kitchen didn’t seem well versed on dietary restrictions - ex when I asked if the sweet potato dish had gluten, he needed to check, then came back and said yes. I asked which ingredient(s) had gluten. He said the pecans. I asked are the pecans coated in flour? He said want sure. I asked if it just shares the same oil as other fried foods and thus had cross contamination- he said yes, the latter. This is important to explain to someone asking for gluten free, as I’m not celiac, and it’s ok if it uses the same oil. He then said the marshmallows had gluten in them, which I’ve never known a marshmallow to have gluten, so that was odd. My husband thinks he was new so cut him slack, but still, at a fine dining restaurant, the quality should be higher. We were bummer to learn this location no longer has their Sunday all you can eat brunch. Our server said only the Alpharetta location has it, this location does an ala cart style. But we won’t be driving up to Alpharetta for breakfast.