Raos tomato sauce

I have read many reviews of this tiny NYC restaurant that is almost impossible to get reservations for. Now, I found they are selling their sauce in a local grocery store. I would like to try it, but it's quite pricey. $7.99 on sale this week for $5.99. Has anyone tried this product?

[emilief]

I love this sauce. It tastes very fresh and is great especially for labor intensive dishes - you can shortcut the sauce and spend time on the other ingredients. I make bolognese from Dean and Deluca -lots of work but using Rao's marinara for the tomato sauce makes it much easier.

[dagwood]

I use the Rao's Arrabiata regularly to make shrimp fra diavolo. It's amazing. I try to stock up when it goes on sale, but I will pay full price for it, it's that good.

[CrazyOne]

I see this is an old thread bumped up, but somewhere in between we tried the Rao's marinara. Compared to other sauces in a jar, it did stand out in a positive way to me. I won't buy it at $8/jar though. We tried when on sale. If I happen upon a sale again I'd likely buy a few jars to have. Store bought marinara is not something we use particularly often, and then perversely if we have it in the house it makes it more likely that we will use it on a given "don't want to cook" night. But still, it's better than many others at both lower and similar cost that I've tried.

[howaboutthat]

We enjoy it (on sale!), but have come to prefer the (fairly similar) Victoria's line of sauces by a slight margin.

[rockycat]

I found it on a good sale once, tried it, and the family loved it. However, the regular price is insane and there's no way we're going to spend that kind of money on what we consider a staple product. Go for it at least once to see what all the fuss is about and see what you think. That's all that really matters anyway.

[_ML_]

Worth the price. Everything else can't compare IMO. I can't get the Cento San Marzano sauce where I live which I heard is amazing too at less cost.

Just tried Rao's marinara sauce for the first time this evening. Delicious! I have tried many jar sauces and this by far is the best. Always like homemade, but don't always have the time to make it. Rao's is pricey, but worth it. In the future, this is the jar sauce I will buy.

I have heard that the Victoria Brand is the same as Rao's. Supposedly it is made in the same factory. It is cheaper that the Rao's and i like it just as well.

[The Professor]

I've heard this too.
It really wouldn't surprise me, since the name "Rao's" is just a brand name (albeit a famous one attched to a restaurant). But the jarred products, while of good quality, are probably not the same as you'd get in the restaurant. It makes sense that a plant producing this stuff for them would be putting various other labels on the same sauce.

I almost never buy sauce in a jar (it's so easy to make) but I have tried the Victoria ones and they are indeed pretty good (I like the Puttanesca).

It's a good sauce but (1) it gets a lot of oomph from a relatively high proportion of oil compared to other marinaras, and (2) it is not sweetened, and so bitter notes from different batches or seasons of tomatoes can come through in different bottles. Not more than other sauces, but the extra oil floats all the flavor notes more, as it were. I find it dependably delicious, but palates will vary.

Food TV had a episode of "Follow That Food" that focused on Frank Pelligrino who manages or ownes Rao's, the link lists all of the recipes including Sunday gravy.

Link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_...

I've tried it a few times and it has always been mediocre and with a bitter burnt taste. Also very expensive, especially for a bad sauce. Rao's isn't considered the best restaurant around, only mid-level. The only thing to say about it is it is hard to get a reservation because of the assigned table policy.

I agree. I tried the sauce once in spite of the absurd price just to see what all the fuss was about. It was pretty underwhelming. Each to his own taste, I guess.

Rao's tomato sauce with eggplant (I forget what they call it) over pasta is one of my favorite "too busy to cook" dinners.

This is the ONLY jar sauce I will eat...that price is excellent...I buy it by the case.

i second that. this is the only jar sauce i will eat and I think it is very falvorful. i think it is yummy, especially over chicken or eggplant parm (get the marinara)

i fooled my dad who would never think of eating sauce out of a fjar.

hey, try it. i don't think 5.99 will break your bank. here in nyc the cheapest i can find it is 6.99 and at all places............bed bath and beyond. lol