Ray's The Classics

Yay! Chris came through for my birthday and made reservations at a place I've been eager to try. We never made it in last year when Ray's The Classics (sibling to Ray's The Steaks in Arlington) opened. A combination of lots of buzz, lack of reservation-making foresight on my part, and no opentable.com participation (the nerve!) kept us away. Anyway, we had a relatively early dinner on Friday and the food was great. I had the crab bisque, 12 oz. house special steak and key lime pie for dessert. The crab bisque was lovely and silky. Chris has the spiced onion soup and the same steak, only larger. Our steaks, both perfectly done, came with creamy mashed potatoes and some seriously good creamed spinach. Complimentary sides were a pleasant surprise after visiting Sam & Harry's and BLT Steak last month where everything is a la carte. Because Chris has mentioned my birthday when making reservations, the key lime pie was also complimentary - how nice!

We both thought it was an excellent meal at a decent price. In fact, when our bill arrived, I noticed that since dessert was free we'd actually spent less than we would have at others places during Restaurant Week. Our only gripe was the sloooooow service. We didn't notice all too much, since we were enjoying a cozy corner table and a bottle of wine, but we did have four different servers and dinner took more than two hours for just the two of us. We had to ask for the check twice (from different people). I don't think we'll be holding that against Ray's though, we had a very good meal and a nice night out. They even wished me a happy birthday on the way out the door : ) I'd definitely go back for a special occasion meal that won't blow the budget. I just wouldn't recommend it for impatient eaters or vegetarians (half the menu is steak, after all).

P.S. - I won't be updating until after our party this weekend, but I plan to be back with lots of recipes and even a how-to for smoked pork barbecue!