Meat-o-rama pictures

4 Little Piggies that love Cow...

MOOO!!! J

After having such wonderful success at Ray’s Hell Burger last year, we decided to up the ante for August, and head to Ray’s the Steaks in Arlington, VA. August is Melissa’s birthday month and her choice made us all very excited! The “Ray’s” restaurants have gained some recent notoriety, not only because of the Obama/Biden burger outing, but because they can hold their own against some long-time DC staples in both quality and atmosphere.

Ray’s the Steaks is modest in appearance with clean lines, white walls, and a skull and crossbones flag hanging in the kitchen—just so the kitchen staff knows who’s boss! There is no bar at Ray’s, but the hostess staff will provide beverages and wine while diners wait for their entire party before being seated. The waiting area is full of wine boxes, and huge wine racks holding some of Sommelier Mark Slater’s best beef pairings. While waiting for the rest of the piggies, I indulged in a glass of Italian Chianti, and settled in for a little people watching.

Once the others arrived, we were seated at a big dark wood table, and presented with our menus and the lengthy wine list. Let the drooling begin! Amanda immediately grabbed the wine list to make our first selection, while we perused the menu. The top of the menu features “butcher’s cuts” which are the finest of the day prepared with the Chef’s favorite and best ingredients. The rest of the menu includes appetizers, a small seafood selection (no fish for us please…only cow!) and a list of main steak entrees. All steaks come with complimentary creamed spinach and mashed potatoes, and the menu provides a small list of other sides to choose, including a piggie favorite, mac and cheese. Amanda chose the Anime Prosecco to start the meal, and we were off!

So here were the evening’s selections:

For appetizers we chose the steak tartar deviled eggs, butter-poached lump crabmeat with corn relish, and bacon-wrapped scallops. The steak tartar eggs were amazing, with a cool and tender tartar. The crabmeat was absolutely delicious with lemon and fresh corn, and the bacon wrapped-scallops were… well, wonderful scallops wrapped in bacon. How could you go wrong?

For entrees we each chose very different steak selections. Mine was a 9oz med-rare, (but more on the rare side…. I like mine very pink) filet wrapped, again, in bacon, with a buttery creamy béarnaise sauce. Kate chose a medium-rare sirloin with “Diablo Sauce,” a chipotle sauce with garlic and onions. It was delicious, albeit a little spicier than the server had let on. Amanda selected the Blue Devil, which was also a sirloin with Diablo sauce only topped with blue cheese and applesauce to combat the spice. Melissa chose the “Brazilian,” a strip steak with a chimichurri-esque sauce. All of the steaks were juicy, cooked to the perfect temperature and seasoned wonderfully. I honestly think, even though I grew up in the Midwest, that it was the best steak I’ve ever eaten. The creamed spinach was so good, even children (God forbid we ever have any little piggies) would eat it up and the mashed potatoes were creamy and fluffy. The mac and cheese was cheesy goodness and the perfect accompaniment to the meal. We paired the steaks with a Washington State Merlot called the Velvet Devil by Charles Smith. Normally we can hold our own but on this trip doggie bags were necessary! But now we had meat for steak and eggs in the morning!

For the birthday girl’s desserts, the wait staff brought us out key-lime pie and a chocolate mousse, both on the house, which brought a sweet and satisfying end to our protein-laden dinner. And with a generous tip included, our portions of the bill were less than $60 each, which makes Ray’s not only a stellar steakhouse, but an affordable one to boot.

Oink rating? We decided based that due to the casual-but-spot-on service and the top-notch quality of the meal to give this winning restaurant 4 oinks!

Stay tuned for September!!