Utopia

I drove by Utopia and it’s now a Mexican Restaurant. What a shame.

Granted, I was only here for the nightlife, but wow, no offense, but this place is a little sketchy-​f. I passed what seemed to be «adult clubs» on the way, and Tech kids get mugged around there a lot. I didn’t try the food, but regardless, I didn’t feel that safe. And the bartender was going to charge me $ 9 for a captain and coke! Not only sketchy-​f but WTF? Wow! They better serve me up a whole captain and a ship for that price. I mean, the Glenn Hotel can charge that for their view, but some dingy, sketchy club with crazy people on the street? I think not. At least the bartender was nice enough to let me not pay for that drink (maybe to drink it later himself) and make me one of the nightly special $ 5 drinks. Meh. Really.

We threw an event here and the owners are soooo nice and willing to help! They are Gems Donni and his wife. It looks really cool on the inside and the Food is Great! The floors are concrete so if you are wearing heels and plan on standing… BEWARE lol. My feet were barking at the nights end.

The atmosphere is cool… kinda Arabian Knights.
The menu is weird… what they call tapas is just a bunch of random appetizers and small plates; no real theme, they claim to serve cajun. Some of the tapas are full meals-​crawfish po’boy w/​fries. Till 7 or 8 they’re all $ 5, so that’s a good deal, and what we had was good (mostly fried). The entrees are weird as well, but the seafood pasta was outstanding. They’ve got a BBQ section, but they were out of ribs at 6pm on a Tuesday… what’s up with that?
Service was ok-​I always LOVE a bartender who chews gum like a cow and looks bored out of her mind… granted it was a very slow night… there was only one other table seated the entire time we were there. Maybe the club is more sucessful on the weekends?

Would I recommend Utopia? UUUUMMMMMM Depends. As described below there are three different «environments and only one is worth the visit as far as I am concerned.
The Utopia I spent most of the night in was pretty good, probably a four. This was the main level which is primarily used as a restaurant and bar. All the staff, from the valet (which is mandatory unless you one of the 10 people who gets there early or are brave enough to leave your car any olé where) to the bartenders were nice. Lots of personality; not burdened by any special requests. The drinks were strong, although I did order a hurricane so I don’t know what I expected. The food was decent. We did notice that everything we ate send to be very Cajun, to say the least. Fortunately, I like that. I shared calamari and had the turkey burger. They also had music which was generally good but primarily served as a background. They do have some special rules for large (read 4) parties including a minimum order. This may be due to the whole tapas aspect. My burger with fries was 7 bucks. The décor is gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the group I was with wanted to visit the two «clubs» Caveat– I don’t like clubs, I am still harboring bad feelings about the demise of house parties. Why I am like this. I only like partying with my friends. My friend can be obnoxiously drunk or dancing like a ho and it is cool. When everyone else does it, I’m like go home I don’t want to see that crap. So for me a club should allow me to ignore everyone else. Neither club did that. The music sucked. There really were not alot of people there. People were continuously going in between the two places so you were always having to move out of someone’s way. So I wasn’t able to concentrate on my party. The suckiness of the club kept interrupting me. Fortunately, we are old so we got out of there pretty quick. Of the two, Shangri La is much better. But Utopia in the middle is the BEST!

Great Venue — Great Food — Great Crowd — Not the Greatest Service
Whatever you do… don’t come starving. lol
Though the staff isn’t the best, this can the experience you’re looking for when wanting a trendy, casual dining place.
The bartender’s make very good drinks, and the wine selection is above expectations. The restaurant itself has a pretty good size to it, lots of room to stretch your legs and elbows. There are also several booths if you prefer something a little more intimate or cozy. There’s no need to rush to your favorite nightspot, you’ll find yourself dancing around the tables here in no time. As the evening progresses there’s actually a DJ that comes in spinning a mix of the most current Urban Music.
The menu has a nice variety and the food is delicious… but hey… Don’t take my word for it. :-)

I like it…
It’s cute…
It’s stylish…
And my speed…
I went here for a Kappa Alumni party… it was for an older crowd 25+ and well worth it to party with my age group. I had never been in before this event and was surprised and impressed like most of the Unilocalers reviewed.
This place is pretty hott…
First off the bartenders are the b.e.s.t for the record! I could have not ask for a more low-​price strong drinks to get my night poppin. The food was good as well. It’s your normal style menu but sure to please. I did not make it down stairs that night because upstairs was all I needed to enjoy great conversion with a good group of handsome tall Kappa men…
I will be back and check out the downstairs for some more fun times.

This place is actually not as bad as it looks form the outside. The crowd seemed like a younger, professional crowd (22 – 30). Good looking women throughout… Have to admit, going out in ATL seems more like a fashion show .but I’m not mad. just curious as to why women go out in Atlanta if they don’t want to be approached or talked to. I’ve lived in NYC, DC, N. O, Miami and other places and never noticed anything like this phenomenon. Nonetheless, I still liked this place. Plenty of space to mingle and even though it lacked variety… it still has a certain charm about it that reminds me of the north east lounges…

A friend of mine took me here as one of the first stops on my birthday night. When we pulled up I was like, «I know you are not bringing me to this hole-​in-​the wall!» I had told her I wanted a nice chill place to have some drinks and tapas to start the night off and she said this would be the perfect place. Like other said, I was very pleasantly surprised when we walked in. It was around 7 on a Friday night and there wasn’t much of a crowd yet, so we got to sit in one of the booths w/​the canopy. I loved that! Happy hour was about to be over, but the waitress said that we could go ahead and order several drinks, and she’ll just bring them out a little later, but still get the happy hour deal! Awesome! The drinks were great, as were the tapas! I thought the sushi was very good and fresh as well. After a couple of hours it started getting a little more busy and when we left there was a line – I assume for the club on the lower level. If you are looking for a chill place, nice atmosphere, good drinks and tapas… this is a great place to try!

Ok, so me and the boo were out one Saturday a couple of weeks ago and wanted to catch the Bernard Hopkins fight at Stats, but, they weren’t showing it. So cruising along Marietta St. we pass Utopia and it just didn’t look that hot… fortunately we decided to pop in at least for a couple of drinks anyway. Were we surprised! It looks real rinky dink on the curb appeal, but when we went it, it was actually cool. The walk-​in level was a restaurant and bar, which was totally playing the fight! We didn’t eat so can’t comment on the food, however, the drinks were good. We ventured off and discovered another lower level and the DJ was banging! He played real party music that you can dance to, and even did a nice classic hip-​hop set that kept the party jumping. We wound up dancing all night long and had a really good time. When all else fails, I’d def pop back in on Utopia.

I have had the sushi here. and i have had the happy hour menu items here… errrr ummm none of it really impresses me at all.
In fact, its way overpriced for the BS that you get. Aesthetically… not a bad looking place, but I associate this spot more with clubbing/​lounging not for the food… and that might be the problem.
I wont go here to eat again cuz the food sucks… but I want to see how it is to hang out here on a friday/​saturday night… i hear its good times.

I went to Utopia for a night out, and was thoroughly surprised (in a good way) at how much I enjoyed myself. I’ve driven past plenty of times, and never stopped in, b/​c it looked like a rundown little place. However, once you go inside it truly was a different matter.
The floor that you walk in on is a restaurant area, and then their are two downstairs areas. The first set of stairs takes you down to a lounge, while the second set takes you down to more of a club scene, with a decent sized dance floor. I thought it was great how you had so many options all in one venue. And each area was playing somewhat different music. I had such a fun time.
I will definitely be adding this one to my list of «going out» spots!

I always see happy hour adertisements for this palce and whenever me and my friends go we have to argue with the waitress about it specs of it.
THEN when we finally get the prices and menu offerings together the portions are extrememly small and still overpriced.
Not worth happy hour but I heard the club was real nice…

Katie W took the words out of my mouth «I wanted to like Utopia more than I actually did. This is not to say I disliked it, but I didn’t love it, either.»
I had heard so much about how cool it was and I was expecting it to be so much more. My «friend like no other» said he really liked the spot and for the most part I thought we liked the same things but not in this case. The music wasn’t even all that great.
The guys there were lame, not that I’m looking ;) but there’s nothing wrong with a little eye candy.
I think when I was hearing it was so great people were talking about the restaurant. I definitely could have stayed at Sa Bar (corner of Walton and Marrietta) which is where we were before Utopia

I wanted to like Utopia more than I actually did. This is not to say I disliked it, but I didn’t love it, either. It started well — I came into a pretty much empty place, approached the bar and was tended to by an extremely friendly bartender. He explained the happy hour drink specials to me ($ 5 martinis) and I ordered one — the sangritini. It was pretty good — a little on the sweet side and not very much like a martini, but a nice sangria-​type beverage. And, I love drink specials. When I left the bar to move to the sofa error, I had to close my tab. There was a lot of confusion surrounding this transaction which I could not completely comprehend since they had my credit card and there were only about 10 people in the whole place.
Once we moved to the sofa, it took a really long time to be noticed by a server. Fortunately, someone in our group was kind enough to get up and find a server so that we could order before the happy hour food and drink specials expired. We were able to successfully order from our very friendly server and got our new drinks and tapas very promptly after ordering. I had the spinach and artichoke cheese dip, which was very good and which I think really did not have bacon in it but rather used a smoky cheese — I enjoyed the smoky flavor. I also tried the barbecue chicken quesadilla and I thought it was just OK. The barbecue flavor was a little too sweet and overpowering in the quesadilla for my tastes. My second sangritini seemed a lot weaker than the first one, which was not that strong to begin with.
When we got our split checks, which our server very graciously split, there was yet again confusion with my check — she simply did not bring me one. When I asked for it, she said she was sure she had brought them all and then went to search for it and found it.
I like the décor in Utopia and the fun little cabana booths. It is a pretty space. The bathrooms have very nice sinks, too. I will definitely give it another chance and I am hoping I can add another star to its rating.

I went to Utopia last night for the weekly Unilocal Happy Hour social. The special was $ 5 tapas and martinis. Martini purists would scoff at that because the specials were actually for fruity drinks served in Martini glasses, but, ever so secure in my masculinity, I drank two of them and enjoyed it.
The tapas offerings were good too. I had a plate of California rolls and a small bbq chicken quesadilla (yes…i had them in the same meal ;) I enjoyed them both. One of the people in our party was a vegetarian and dismayed at the fact there was bacon in the artichoke dip. I don’t know if there was, I didnt taste any on the one bite I had but it did have a slight smoky flavor, and I did enjoy it. So it may be good to ask about a dish first if you are not a meat eater.
The service was a little slow, but we weren’t too upset about that, the company was good and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Utopia is such a cool place when it is a restaurant. Now someone is trying to turn it into a club on Saturday nights and it’s messing up the atmosphere. The food is good and the drinks are ok so lets leave it like it is. I was there on a Saturday and people were actually smoking weed in the restaurant side and the club side of Utopia. I am in my 30’s so smoking weed in a public place is so un-​cool. I would go there again if it is strictly good music, cool vibe, and no pot smoking.

This review is a real pleasure to write. Utopia is FANTASTIC. Not only is it a really beautiful space, but the food and drinks are actually really good. I often take friends visiting from out of town to Utopia and no one has ever complained. The staff is friendly, the music is pretty good and the spirit of the place is approachable. Don’t get weirded out by the supposed «VIP» section at the front of the main room… it’s open for anyone. Going on a hot date? The booths are great… because you can close the curtains for additional privacy. A husband and wife team own it and are the nicest, cutest couple. Be kind, hubby may send a round of shots to your table.
One of my favorite things about this space is that they’re flexible enough so that if you have a last minute soirée and you’re scrambling for reservations… try this place, they’ll make it work for you.
Have fun, enjoy the martinis but be careful because they can sneak up on you.

PART II.
I recently went back to the place for a B-​Day party. I actually checked out the club side called ICE. Well, AZ had the VIP reserved, but it wasn’t that at all. It was the atmoshphere. DJ Cowboy was on the wheels and he kept it going from the moment I got there.10 until it shut down…2a.m. If you want to dance and dance and dance some more… CHECK IT ON SATURDAY NIGHTS. The wings are Great. I am still suspect on the rest of the food, but the other things still ring true. And people it is for the Grown and Sexy without having to be all dressy and stuffy like at LUCKIE. More bang for your buck. And the crowd is pretty diverse at times. Drinks are real drinks. Donnie and his wife are doing a great job.

I am IN LOVE with this place. I worked two events here this past week. Utopia has SO much character!!! It’s split into three sections: The Ice Ultralounge, Shangri-​La and Utopia. Each section has its own personality and somehow everything works without being too gaudy. Seriously, I would just come here to stare at the wall.
Didn’t really get a chance to partake in the food since I was working, but the calamari and chicken were pretty good.
Ice is the dance section of the Utopia, and, you guessed it… it’s blue and gray/​silver. Nice, spacious dance floor with plenty of mirrors to assure you that you are looking your best!
Utopia is the «main» room, of course… this is where the sushi bar is and food is served. This room has SO much going on but somehow it works. I love it. There are several flat screen TVs around so you can catch up on the latest game. Waterfall wall that is hot… Ample seating with a very sexy section of about 4 or 5 booths in the back.
Shangri-​La is downstairs. Bright green walls and modern furniture decorate this cutesy area… it reminds me of a beautifully furnished basement. There is also a small bar down here.
We should have a Unilocal event here!!!