Utopia — Restaurant in Bangor

Had my eye on this place for over a year now. Finally went in. Cute place. Nice servers. Loved the layout and atmosphere. Food was okay at best. The price is a lot for the quality of food. The sizes of the dishes are generous but the food itself is at times yucky. Most everything was badly spiced mushy vegetables. This is coming from a vegan btw. I love my veggies but I probably won't ever come back here and I don't really recommend it. Hmm maybe for drinks, but then again there are a million other cute places to go within a few blocks for drinks. That's not the case for vegetarian/vegan food.

For reference I had: -polenta fries (they were okay, not amazing, and I'd never order it again, but the portion for an app was HUGE, the red sauce was pretty good)

-Falafel platter (the falafel themselves were kinda disgusting, like they looked like falafel but once I bit into it the texture and flavor were weird and licorice-y, I've had a lot of falafel, as street food in new york or at a million different little eateries in several middle eastern countries, I even make them at home, so I think I can say that I know falafel and what it should taste like. I've also had a lot of things mascarading as falafel; this by far was the worst. The little salad that came with it was decently yummy, as were the olives. The cauliflower was inedible, weirdly spiced and not cooked (were they supposed to be raw?), the pickles and pickled tomato were also a little ick)

-eggplant, vegan meat lasagna thing (probably the best tasting thing that was ordered but again on a more absolute scale was okay, something a mediocre home cook could make, also was pretty mushy, acidic, and oily but tolerably so. But for over $20, I'm sorry but no recommendations here either)

Also everything took a very long time but I didn't care since I was just there to catch up with someone. And having worked in restaurants myself for a while, I understand being short-staffed. My rating was not effected by the wait time.

So to summarize- Good- atmosphere, friendly staff, options for different diets, portion sizes Bad-...

Updated: Dropped my rating from a 4 to a 2 after the owner tracked me down on Instagram AFTER arguing with me here after I left what I thought was a very fair review. Definitely won't go back nor recommend to friends.

Original review: Cozy restaurant offering a limited menu of Mediterranean/Greek options. I really wanted to give Utopia 5 stars. I love Greek food, and the atmosphere is really nice inside.

Pros: the spinach pie was excellent, topped with crispy phyllo.

Neutral: The Utopia appetizer plate was okay. Nice housemade hummus accompanied by warm naan. Uninspired tomatoes and cucumbers adorned the plate, along with some pickled cucumbers and peppers, which we enjoyed. The falafel was dry. I would have enjoyed some stuffed grape leaves and other traditional Greek appetizers on the plate. Maybe some nice olives?

I was thoroughly confused by the chicken parmesan on the menu. Although my husband ordered it and enjoyed it. The portion was HUGE! Easily enough for 2 or even 3 people. But that definitely isn't Greek and isn't even Mediterranean. It's American, but for lack of souakibor gyros on the menu, that's what he settled on.

The portions were large enough that we didn't have room for dessert, but did ask to see the menu. Pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate cake, baklava and cannoli? Again, I was confused by the cannoli, cheesecake, etc.

I would have liked to see more traditional Greek dishes. There was a duck entree that looked interesting, as well as mushroom pasta and butternut squash ravioli. Again, not anything expected from a Greek restaurant.

We had a nice meal, but I felt it was overpriced. 2 glasses of house wine, the appetizer plate, chicken parmesan and spanikopita came to $124 before the tip. I'm not sure we'll go back. Bangor doesn't have a ton of choices when it comes to fine dining, but sadly Utopia won't be added to our rotation. Opa in Waterville isn't too far, has a much more varied menu of Greek food, and we've enjoyed meals there far more.

Lisa Steele Author of The Fresh Eggs...

Made reservations for valentines day and was not informed when I made reservations that there would be a set menu. I was excited to try the hummus and cannoli as I have heard both are amazing. I was so disappointed I wasn't able to get either. I understand it's valentines day and busy so I didn't mind having to wait for food. But when I finally was served my appetizer (crab and salmon cakes) they were overcooked/burnt/dried out. I had the pear salad and the salad was okay but the pears were not ripe. For my entrée i ordered the stuffed mushrooms and I LOVEEEE LOVE mushrooms. These mushrooms were simply just mush no rooms. Not impressed with this menu and it wasn't like you could send anything back or complain to the poor waitresses as they were all running around barely able to keep up with how busy it was. They were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It was so unorganized and definitely not their fault.

Sadly it was a poor food experience for first time going. Me and my boyfried asked for dessert to go as we just wanted to leave and had been there for 2 hours.

It was entertaining watching the women and Chef in the chicken argue with the waitresses about what had been served and what table needed what. So unprofessional. The table that sat down after us was served apps before we had been served ours and we had already ordered before they sat down. The quality of the food was not...