Rawtopia Living Cuisine and Beyond — Restaurant in Millcreek

The worst dining experience of my life!

The good, they have vegan options.

The bad, everything else. I'll start with the food. Portions were small and extremely expensive. Unless you are already on a raw or vegan diet, you will not be happy with any of the food here.

They automatically charge a 20% tip and leave the tip line blank in case you didn't notice the gratuity was already on your bill (my wife almost double tipped). Most places do this with parties of 6/8 or more and we only had 5 people. I guess that is considered a large party here, but I consider their billing practice shady at best.

Now for the worst part; the self-righteous owner, Omar. While eating, my parents (who have been here many times) told me how great Omar was and how special his food was. After not enjoying the food. I was expecting to pay the bill, chat with my parents for a minute (since I was there for them), and then hit the road.

Enter Omar with a cheesy grin and all the answers to the questions nobody asked. He asked me what happened to my nose as I had a skin graft placed a few weeks ago, and I told him I had a procedure. Unfortunately, my wife chimes in and says it was cancer related. These are the last words either myself or my wife said to Omar for the next several minutes.

Omar proceeds (without any prompting or input on my end) to begin his self-righteous rant. He starts by telling me I have a terrible diet and should exclude refined sugars or farm raised animal protein among other things. He not so subtly tells me the cancer is my fault and a healthy diet is all you need to avoid such pitfalls at a young age (I'm younger than Mr. Omar).

Omar continues talking, so I'm getting more pissed by the minute, as this guy knows NOTHING about my diet or past history in any way. Eventually, Omar must have sensed his sermon was falling on deaf ears because he ends his rant by saying "Well you can live however you want". At which point I tell him I will, and he moves on to dietary talk with my parents.

Honestly, I cannot believe the ignorance displayed by the owner and his establishment. The owner knew nothing about my past history; whether it be dietary, religious, ethnic, medical, etc. To instantly assume I have cancer because of my diet, and then to jump into a lecture making me feel like the cancer was my fault, is nothing short of idiotic.

Please do not support this establishment even if you happen to be vegan. I'm sure there are places that do not judge quite so quickly that you can give your...

I'm not vegan and yet, I loved Rawtopia. They use organic, non-GMO ingredients from sustainable sources. They have options with wild-caught fish and grass-fed meats. Being a good cook and foodie, I tend to be very discriminating. I care about service and cleanliness a LOT. Rawtopia surprised me. It was super clean and the service was excellent. Ambiance is quiet with a simple, modern vibe. Good coffee. I had the fish tacos and I was blown away. They were full of flavor. My daughter gave me a taste of her broccoli soup and it was one of the best soups I've ever tried (completely vegan). Food was perfectly salted. They use a great combination of spices. Their vegan desserts are delicious. Will be going back. One of my new faves in Salt Lake City. Highly recommend if you're looking for amazing, flavorful food that is actually good for you!

Update on 1/14/22: We went back for dinner a few days after my initial review. Same as last time, it was a Saturday evening. Unfortunately, I have to change my review to a lower score. The food was very good, but the service was lacking, in fact, it was quite disappointing. We made a reservation 1 day prior to our visit. When we arrived, there wasn't a table waiting for us. They cleaned one and asked us to sit all in one both (5 adults of us) as there wasn't anything else available. Uncomfortable. No one brought menus for over 15 minutes. We had to ask for them. We didn't get any silverware or napkins until we had to ask for them almost until the end of the meal. My daughter asked for a hot chocolate which never came until we asked for it for a second time, again, almost at the end of the meal. We asked for the dessert menu, waited over 15 minutes for it, got tired, asked for the bill from another server, then finally as we were ready the leave they brought us the dessert menu. We were celebrating our daughter's b-day who is vegan and wanted a special dinner like one her and I had the prior week. Service then is hit and miss apparently. I understand they were busy, so that could have been the issue. Lack of staff during a Covid surge. Still, it felt they didn't even realize...

I continue to look forward to every visit. The service is not what it once was. I wish the cool employees hanging out behind the bar would come chat with customers like they used to -- share their passion for Raw living and show the community energy of the past location. But still -- it might sound like an exaggeration -- I truly find Rawtopia to be quite life changing. We all spend so much time eating foods that are easier to buy at restaurants even though we could probably make them at home. The magic of Omar and his kitchen is that the food comes out, and most of us wouldn't know the first steps on how to make that kind of art ourselves. The food makes you think about what we eat and why we eat it. My favorite is the nut burger, but this last time we tried the Pizza and the miso soup. The soup was tasty and hardy with veggies that were perfectly cooked. My preteen daughters didn't get excited about the pizza. I don't love how that they serve it on a bed of lettuce which sort of encourages you to turn it into a salad. I reminded my kids that with all things vegan or raw, it is better to try something that doesn't sound like a food you think you know already. Last time I had the special -- a strew that I LOVED. This time we also ate a slice of berry pie, which we loved. The chocolate pie has too much walnut and coconut for my taste, but it was loved by my little ladies. We loved the spicy ginger aid but missed the heart that used to be served on top of most drinks. None of my items came with fresh sprouts, which was a bummer. But I score this place a 5, because even without the added touches that I used to love, it is still hands and above the most creative and most nourishing food I have access to in Utah or anywhere we've lived. It always makes me think and makes me grateful....