>>1317
It sounds like an overrated place that is exclusive for it's own sake. Someplace for celebs, rich fucks, and food critics to brag about.
>"It's about experience"
What a load of bullshit. It's about status. If it was about experience of being treated as family, as some people claim, Rao's would not their clients sell their own tables.
Many stores in my are had Rao's sauces on a sale recently, so I decided to try. It's ok for a sauce in a jar, but definitely not worth the money. The jar sauce flavor is still there, tomato quality is a bit better than Ragu, and they dump more olive oil into it than most other brands. If it's indicative of the restaurant, people paying for tables and bending over backwards to get in are huge retards. Rao's sauce should not cost more than a dollar or two extra of what Newman's Own sauce costs.
Either way, you are better off sauteing finely chopped onion until it just beings to caramelize a bit (for some sweetness and depth), throwing some crushed garlic in, adding canned or boxed crushed tomatoes, then throwing some basil and organo in. Afterwards, you let it sit in a pan to thicken. Add salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste throughout.
The end result will be much better than any ready sauce in the jar. And it will cost you at least half of what the Rao's sauce, and that's if you go for the best tomatoes the store has on sale. It's easy to get it done as you wait for water to boil and for pasta to cook. You have far more control over the flavor, as you can't regain freshness once the jarred sauce manufacturer blasts it with heat for who knows how long and then the sauce sits in trucks and on shelves for weeks or months.