[Ray's the Steaks]

Joe,

It may be a generational thing too. We Gen X'rs and Y'rs (God, they Gen Y's haven't hit here yet have they?) may not feel 5 stars needs to be stuffy.

Arrogance? The staff was nothing but accomodating to our funky needs. I mean, butter is like nectar from the gods, so is cream, but Jules can't eat it right now. Never a question. The kitchen seemed to have a plan B up there sleeves for us.

Now, that damn 90 minute thing...we feel we wasted the later reservation. I hope we didn't take the linger factor away from someone else, but honestly, we didn't get our next course on the heels of the previous.

One thing on the main was our fault, one was Michael's and his staff. Our fault, we were starving.

His fault...the steaks were too damn good. Period.

I have a love hate relationship with restaurants. They seem to always screw me. No matter what I get, it is usually f'd up in one way, shape or form.

Not so much at Ray's.

I never felt there was arrogance in the room. Bustle, yes, but not arrogance.

For 2.5 times as much, I could go eat at the Outback's "let's pretend we are a grown up's restaurant", which I have, and not have had as good a steak.

I've been to Black Salt. It's not the greates thing since sliced bread either. I think the Salt needs to be dropped from the name.

Just like Michael's steaks are best left naked and undressed...BS needs to drop their love of everything sodium.

[Ray's the Steaks]

Just a note if you made it this far, they are currently not offering the Flat Iron Steak cut. They are in hangar mode and Jared said in butchering, it is either one or the other.

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Due to our extended aging cycle, the exacting and time-consuming standards necessary to prepare these cuts correctly, and the unpredictability of the frequency with which guests order these lesser-known cuts we have found it possible to offer only one of these cuts at a time and maintain the quality and proper aging of the meat.

That is what Jarad meant by "it is one or the other."

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Thanks Michael for clarifying that. It makes total sense now. I'm really showing my ignorance in these first posts on EG. I think I need to go back and do some review.

[Ray's the Steaks]

Just a note if you made it this far, they are currently not offering the Flat Iron Steak cut. They are in hangar mode and Jared said in butchering, it is either one or the other.

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Actually that is not entirely accurate... Flat Iron is from the chuck and hanger is from the inside of the cow near the diaphram... Not even close to the same thing.

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I've not butchered a whole lotta cows, so I'm only going off the info that Jarad provided that night. Now I need to go open up some of my texts when I get home.

[Ray's the Steaks]

Ate at Ray's on Saturday night. First time there. My wife and I had our 9th wedding anniversary earlier last week and decided that we were all up for the food (screw romance, give us steak).

We set up an 8:30pm reservation per Jared's suggestion in case we wanted to linger for awhile. It was nice having that luxury, but we were out of there pretty early.

After finding parking (Arlington is very unforgiving if you miss a spot), we were promptly seated at 8:30. We noticed a large group waiting for a table, they too had a 8:30pm reservation, and the occupants of their future table were discretely notified that they had exceeded their 90 minute allotment at about 8:40 or so.

We hinted at getting a suggestion on the wine, but were simply give a few extra minutes to figure it out. A different waitress came over and we ordered a bottle they were out of, but picked another in the same pinot noir section. Wine prices were very, very reasonable.

I ordered the app size order of scallops. They were excellent, with only one scallop having a strange consistency (taste was fine, and it was fresh). Jules had the mixed green salad as she is unable to have eggs or dairy for the next few months. Waitress understood the reasons for the no egg/dairy, it was noted on our reservation, and the staff were very accomodating.

The foccacia like bread that came out was certainly not the highlight of the meal. It was a bit doughy in the not exactly cooked 100% sense, but it was such a minor point that it barely registers as a complaint. Especially when you consider the steaks....

We both ordered the Hangar steaks. I went rare, Jules went medium. I've been used to restaurants not exactly adhering to the meaning of rare and getting something more towards medium rare or even medium.

Well, I think I'll be ordering medium rare from now on. The steak was excellent, but Michael and his staff really do know the temperatures and obviously know about resting times. This steak was a wee bit too bloody for my taste, but nonetheless I ate almost the entire portion. It was an excellent cut of beef. I really enjoyed it.

Because of the dairy/egg amnesty, they brought a garlic fried potato dish and steamed broccoli. I was joking to my wife that she screwed me out of the mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. The waitress, who actually didn't hear me, came over and offered me the proper sides. I accepted...I salivated over them, my wife scowled at me. I told her to eat her broccoli. It turned out to be perfectly steamed.

I had a slice of key lime pie and coffee while Jules had a bowl of plain ripe strawberries. Considering the cost of everything else at Ray's is a bargain, $5 for a wineglass of strawberries was a tad expensive given market price these days for fresh ripe strawberries, but again, the place seems to have a set $5 dessert price so that's fair enough. Pie was nice. Coffee doesn't suck. Very good, in fact.

We were out in little over an hour, but that was our choice. The only, only bad service point I have is that our check arrived with our dessert. Since we weren't limited by time, I was a bit surprised by that, but again, they weren't shooing us out.

Price was absurdly very reasonable at $104 with wine, before tip.

I'll certainly go back and try some of the other cuts. The strip was certainly very appealing.

It was noisy, but not in an irritating way, just bustling like I expected. We could easily hear each other, and that was refreshing.

Just a note if you made it this far, they are currently not offering the Flat Iron Steak cut. They are in hangar mode and Jared said in butchering, it is either one or the other.