Restaurant: Ray's Hell Burger

Mike (or Mike H as Mike C requested he be called), who I don't think I've seen in the better part of two years, called on Friday to let me know he'd be driving through the area and to ask if we wanted to meet up. We'd just gotten back from AC and were mere hours away from a Caps game, but we managed to work something out. Since beer and food seem to be the only thing he and I ever talk about (how much else is there really?), it stands to reason that we met up for some serious grubbage. It wasn't until after the fact that it computed we spent a grand total of 20 minutes hanging out.

At Mike's suggestion, we met him at Ray's Butcher Burgers or Ray's Hell Burger as it's better known. An offshoot of Ray's the Steaks and located on Wilson Blvd in Arlington, Hell Burger is amazingly absent from the internet if you don't count reviews. I actually didn't know anything about it going in, which can make for a pretty significant scramble if you've only got 20 minutes to order, eat and get the hell out. What follows is my Hell Burger cheat sheet; I enjoyed my meal and will be going back.

• Take a few minutes to digest the menu. It's fairly simple but I ordered based on suggestion because of the time crunch. I ended up with a burger that had a Post-It pad size slice of blue cheese and while I like the stuff, it was all I could taste. I'm convinced there are better combinations (I saw foie gras) that I just skimmed over. Note they ONLY sell burgers; no chicken sammiches here.
  
• 10oz really isn't all that much when it's high quality beef. You look at the thing and you're convinced there's no way you're going to finish but when the meat is super tender, juicy and extremely delicious it's surprisingly easy.
• Only order medium rare if you really like it bloody. My medium was perfect but a couple of the medium rares at our table looked more like rare to me. It will be super juicy no matter what, so eat over your plate.
• Be sure to eat it vertically (thumbs towards you, not down) or your bun will fall apart. A lot of the reviews I've read complained about the bun but if you eat it right, you won't have any problems. I even managed to eat mine without cutting it in half.
• They don't serve fries, which is probably for the better. They do have cheesey tater tots that were pretty good but the best side is by far the mac and cheese. For what it's worth, the mac and cheese is enough to make a non-beef eater want to go back (ask me how I know).
• Don't expect to have a beer while there, as they don't serve alcohol. They do have Dominion Root Beer on tap though, which is decent substitute.

Ninja edit: On a related note, my sister just posted this picture of my niece. Not only did I not know Five Guys has locations in NJ, I also didn't know they apparently have 300+ all over the eastern seaboard.