100 Very Best Restaurants 2013: Ray’s the Steaks and Ray’s the Classics

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Beer Battered Shrimp Appetizer at Ray's the Steaks. Photograph by Scott Suchman

About Ray's the Steaks

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cuisines
American, Steaks

Think of Michael Landrum’s filet-mignon-for-the-people
steakhouses as fraternal twins—the Silver Spring spinoff’s spare dining
room is loud and has a Deco air, while the Arlington flagship is
white-walled and even noisier. Frills are few and service can be rushed,
but that’s fine with us because both places serve some of the most
flavorful rib eyes and New York strips in town, and at bargain basement
prices. Steakhouse classics—a Parmesan-heavy Caesar salad,
tarragon-scented béarnaise sauce—are done right. And seafood tends to be
just as satisfying, from velvetycrab bisque to buttered crab royale. The
Arlington location has a more extensive lineup of steaks, while Silver
Spring showcases some of the hits from Landrum’s Ray’s Hell-Burger.
Don’t miss: Wedge salad; hanger steak; New York strip
with brandy-mushroom cream sauce; cowboy cut with horseradish cream;
Brazilian strip steak with “piranha sauce”; dark- and milk-chocolate
mousses; Key-lime pie.
Open: Daily for dinner.
Expensive.

100 Very Best Restaurants 2013


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.