Ray's Hell Burger, Take II

Take II in the post title is referring to the second post about the same place, not that it's my second experience. But this past weekend, Alan and I had the most wonderful fortune to be spending a glorious few days with Paul, Sarah and Amelia in Alexandria, Virginia. To start off the fun, we took a drive out to Arlington to Ray's to see if this burger place lived up to the reputation (as previously posted by Paul).

The place is a bit of a dump...clean, but nothing to look at. In a strip mall with no ambiance, lots of handwritten signs directing you where to go, how to order and to make sure you hit the ATM before you place your order since it's cash only. But there's a roll of paper towels on every table top making me think when we walked in that they were serious about how juicy these burgers were going to be.

The menu was bigger than I expected - luckily Sarah had multiple copies in the car to peruse before getting there. http://www.rayshellburger.com/ laid out the options and I settled pretty quickly on wanting my traditional cheeseburger but with the addition of grilled onions because I think I've decided that they are truly an enhancement. You'll see if you check out the menu that Ray's cooks the burger to your order - medium rare, medium, medium well and even well done. This is one of the differentiating points that separates Ray's from a Shake Shack or Five Guys putting it a bit more in the "gourmet burger" camp. Though the price ($6.99) does lean it more towards fast food, it would be too hard to compare this to a mass produced burger chain.

I was clear in my mind that I would be going with a grilled burger served with Vermont white cheddar, lettuce, tomato and grilled onions and that I'd be adding mustard, ketchup and mayo (someone really should bottle this combination for me - it would save a lot of time and mess making). And I'd be sharing skin on fries with everyone plus stealing a few bites of Amelia's mac & cheese.

No line, we got right up to the counter but the ordering process was harder than it should have been. They were training a new person and the young lady was so quiet she was impossible to hear over the loud din of grills and fans coming from the kitchen. We placed our orders, hoped she got it all right, got our assigned number and grabbed a seat to wait for the burgers to emerge. Not much waiting - out they came! Both Paul and Alan's burgers were missing the bacon they ordered...luckily the waitress quickly came back with a double side order they got on their burgers before they had cooled off or even had a bite taken out of them. By the way - we got there around 6pm and it was pretty empty, a few people eating at tables outside and one or two other people inside. By the time we left a little before 7pm it was packed solid with a line to order and all the tables filled.

The burger is nicely sized at 10 ounces - bigger than most fast food restaurants but not so daunting you can't pick it up. Still a two handed affair, but doable. I loved that they put the lettuce between the patty and the bun...it gave my bun a fighting chance to withstand at least a few minutes of the juicy, dripping soak that was to come. The cheddar had a sharpness to it that was a refreshing change from standard, tasteless American and the grilled onions were smokey and sweet. I picked it up and bit in.

It's not the best burger I've ever had - that honor still goes to the one at Postrio in Las Vegas - but, DAMN, that's a great burger!! Perfectly cooked to my specification of medium it was loaded with flavor and texture. First off, it tasted like a burger with real beef in it. The combination of toppings was messy to be sure but worked together to give an explosion of hot and cold, crisp and soft, sweet and tangy. Seriously, a really, really good burger. I couldn't put it down. Literally, it started falling apart on me almost immediately and my hands were the only things holding it barely all together. So I ate it fast, washed it down with an Old Dominion Root Beer and mopped up the mess left on my hands, table and shirt afterwards. Thank God for the paper towels!

The fries were good and salty...but not quite as good as Five Guys. The mac & cheese was just so/so. The shakes that everyone ordered To Go were thick and flavorful. All that being said, the star is definitely the burger and shouldn't be missed if you're in the area.

I wasn't alone of course and am hoping Paul, Sarah and Alan will add their own comments about their burgers and their experience. But I for one will go back and will be looking forward to it!