First Look - Ray's the Steaks

I can't begin to tell you how long I've been waiting for this. Years, almost as long as I've lived in DC. Even before I even cared about food I wanted to go, it was my finish line...and Saturday, I got there.



Ray's the Steaks is a mecca of meat, it's a shrine to real food made right, and it's nod to a simpler time when the food on your plate, not the decor on your walls made your restaurant.

If you walk in thinking Ray's is going to be like Ruth's Chris or Morton's, you need to turn around and go home. Unlike its chain counterparts, Ray's doesn't take reservations (which is a double edged sword), and doesn't have overly dressed waiters displaying pieces of meat to you in grand demonstrations.

What you'll get is a small room with nothing on the walls, waiters and waitresses who don't mess around, and food that's actually under-priced.

You'll start off with a small bowl of spicy cashews which they need to package and sell (much in the way Michel Richard needs to market those chicken nuggets of his), because I'd buy them by the ton.

The wine list is ample, but not overwhelming, and the glass of Cabernet Sauvignon that my father and I both had was fantastic.

Everyone (Apples, my father, and I) started off with a bowl of soup. The French onion was incredibly flavorful and appropriately cheesy; again, something I could eat by the gallon. Apples and dad got the lobster bisque which was a cup of creamy goodness, yet was pleasantly light.

But the real star of the show was the meat. My father and I got the hanger steak. I had never had hanger steak before, but I've known that I wanted my first experience to be here. I'm so glad I waited.

Unlike in other steakhouses, the steak here didn't come out in a pool of butter, it was clean, incredibly flavorful, and cooked exactly how I wanted it.

Apples got the petite filet, which I thought was as good, if not better than any other filet I've ever had.

Complimentary with your steaks is a creamed spinach that again, actually tasted like spinach and not like butter and cream, and mashed potatoes that were wonderful clouds of potato-y goodness.

Unfortunately we didn't stick around for dessert, which I don't regret because we were plenty full when we left. Though if there was one regret walking out, it was that I waited so long before going; that's not a mistake I'm going to make again.