Rai's Pizza — Restaurant in Virginia

Preface: This place gets a lot of hype and is often mentioned on the local boards and forums such as Northern Virginia Foodies, RHOLC, etc. Today was our first time trying them.

TLDR: Overall, Rai's did not disappoint. Great food! 5 stars! Give them a try if you haven't.

We went to Rai's to place a carry out order. 2 steak and cheese, one medium cheese pizza, and a can of coke.

The Service: If you aren't aware, in general carry out orders are sometimes considered the least desirable type of order by some restaurant staff, because they know the tips (sometimes a major part of their pay) will often suck, and that's if there even is a tip! Because of this, you are often automatically a "low effort" customer if placing a carry out order. (To share, i gave what I consider to be an excellent tip for a carry out order.) So knowing this, let me say I'm already not expecting a red carpet rollout and the sprinkle of flowers where we are walking treatment. Besides, this is lunch, not a wedding! :)

But, you know when something is missing and you can't exactly put your finger on it? Yeah? Well, that's sort of the level of service we received. DO NOT take this as criticism! As I've indicated, this was not unexpected, again carry out and all...... While absolutely "nothing" was bad, there was slight room for improvement(s). If I may offer some constructive suggestions, it is that it would have been nice to have some order updates. A simple "Your food will be up in about 5 minutes, did you decide if you would like anything else to go with it?" and perhaps a "Hi thanks for coming in!" from other employees that walked past us as we were waiting would be really appreciated, especially considering we were the only customers in the shop at that time. Little things like that are often the difference between an "ok" restaurant and a great restaurant, imo. I will say, service was good enough to earn 5 stars, so good job overall to the lady that helped us initially and the gentleman that we finished with. (I am guessing either her shift was ending or she was going to lunch, as she left while we were waiting for our order.)

On to the food! Steak and cheese: We ordered a couple of steak and cheese. Not cheesesteaks! There is a difference! Onions, peppers, Cooper American Cheese. This is where Rai's sealed the deal. Hot! Fresh! Order was correct! The right amount of meat! Perfect amount of cheese! Excellent onions and peppers! If I made it at home, this has the portions I would have used. Absolutely top notch, definitely one of the best in the NOVA area!

Pizza: We also ordered a medium (14") cheese pizza. The crust was great, the cheese was ok, and the sauce was decent. Toppings were the right amount, slices were foldable if that's your thing. The pizza was served "burn the roof of your mouth hot and delicious." It's definitely in the top twenty of pizza I've had.

Can of diet coke: It was ice cold. It was a can of coke. I highly doubt you are going to Rai's just for a can of coke, but I hear happy hour is happening!

Bottom line: give them a try if you haven't. We...

It was alright but over-hyped. I ordered through grubhub for pickup. The time said be there by 5:50 but my order was done 10 minutes early so I scrambled to get to the car so the food wouldn't be soggy. It was soggy by the time I got home 😂 but that's fine. I get timing can be hard.

When I got there, they handed me my online order after I told them my name and that was all of our interaction as they were more interested in the football game that was on the TV.

I got 2 steak and cheese subs (both with the NOT cheese wiz cheese..whatever that option is) with lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo which are all included in the price. We could have added jalapenos, peppers, or sweet peppers for $0.75 each topping but we decided not to. We also got fries and a cheese pizza.

The food was okay. I don't mind paying a decent price for a good sandwich. As others have said, they are generous with the meat portions. So much meat that I added a ton of my own tomatoes because it was just meat overload. It was just an okay sandwich and I would not get it again. I've had my share of steak and cheese subs and this one was nothing to write home about, imo.

The pizza was pretty good and my children didn't complain so that's a win in my book. The fries had nice flavor and would have been nice fresh; they didn't travel well and were super soggy. My kids however said the fries tasted "gross". Pretty sure they're cajun spiced so that's something to consider.

Overall, if I were in the neighborhood and my kids wanted pizza, I'd stop by and grab one. But we'd skip the sandwiches, next time.

Please try them out and be your own judge! This was just my interaction with...

So far, Ive tried the pizza and the cheesesteak (2 ways). I cant speak highly enough about both. My experience with pizza in NoVA had not been super great until Rai's came around. Most places have a lot of flop to their pizza or it feels like sloppy mush until you get to the crust. Rai's has a decently firm crust with little to no flop and 9/10 foldability. As far as the pizza taste goes, I've done the Pepperoni Pizza twice and its right up there with my favorite NY pizza places. I would call it an almost perfected work in progress as customer suggestions are coming in. Now for the cheesesteak, those things are massive and I would say either way, worth the cost. I have ordered one with lettuce tomato mayo with provolone and one with onion hot peppers and whiz. They were both right on the money. No need to go to Philly anymore. They use Amoroso rolls which are genuine Philly way of life for cheesesteaks. 1lb of prime shaved steak is a lot so make sure your stomach and brain are prepared. I have been there 3 times and will be back for sure. The fact that so many people went there and shut them down due to running out of ingredients should be enough to tell you how good it is compared to other pizza joints in NoVA. I have been there 3 times since opening and will make it a weekly...