Utopia Cafe

⁰⁵⁄₀₈ 1:30 Cornbeef hash/​coffee all very good. Thanks Jordon. Note: I came by last week w/​o address… I couldn’t find the place… hmmmm…needs bigger/​better signage.

Used to be great. I used to go there a lot. They got a new chef a few months back, and it’s just not as good. The signature omelettes aren’t a fluffy, the potato cakes aren’t as greasy/​salty and they seem to use less meat/​peppers/​etc and more potatoes. Not bad, just not great anymore.

A restaurant minimalist in décor with friendly service and a place that has brunch late in the afternoon. If you’re craving corned beef hash, Utopia Café is one of the best in Portland, to get freshly made corned beef slathered with a runny yolk. It might well be the best thing on the menu.
We went on a weekday, after the lunch rush, which meant exceptional service. Our waiter was probably bored, and we were checked on multiple times. I had a great dining experience.
I ordered the blueberry pancakes, and took the rest to go. They were fine the next morning for a second breakfast. I would get the corned beef hash. They make it fresh, and it’s not all stringy and old like other brunch spots in town.

I love the simplicity of Utopia café. Located on an evolving Belmont st– Utopia allows me to slow down and enjoy good, simple healthy choices. The service is always super attentive and nice.
I’ve gone there for my birthday brunch and to start a day with my soon to be. Both days were special and have a wonderful breakfast story.
Highly recommended

I can say that It is not as good as it used to be. I can’t tell exactly what had changed in the menu, but it has changed. Utopia café is still our favorite places to stop for breakfast.

Third time going for brunch today. A few of our friends always run long on the weekends with us and we have made it a tradition to get brunch afterwards. We like to dodge the crowds and waits to refuel ASAP. This place never has a wait. They pretty much specialize in scrambles. They’re all amazing and come with choice of potato cakes or roasted potatoes, toast or biscuit. They always have a few specialty scrambles. Today we went with the Baja and Texas scramble. Delicious! The mocha had hand scraped vanilla in it. Love this place! Excellent service too. A hidden gem in SE. They serve lunch too, but we are yet to try that. Good food for a good price. Next to Saint Cupcake too, so you can grab some dessert to go afterwards.

One of our favorite places to stop by for breakfast on our way to school. The service is always excellent and the food doesn’t disappoint. Always consistently delicious! Highly recommend!!!

Buttermilk pancakes were very doughy and undercooked. Kinda gross. I’ll try again, though, in hope it was an off day.

So good, I’d definitely recommend the Utopia Café. Great variety on the menu and tasty specials. Coffee is delicious! Portions are generous. My kids both got pancakes and liked them, but didn’t love them — I think because they’re pretty dense and not super fluffy. I thought they were great! My husband and I both got a scramble and were happy!

Tried this new place. The food was very good and the service was great. Didn’t have to wait. I would definitely recommend this place.

Delicious! We came at 11:30 on a Sunday because we didn’t want to wait an hour in line somewhere else. We were seated immediately and the food came out within 5 minutes. We both got specials.
The carrot cake pancakes with cream cheese butted were so thick and fluffy and amazing! The perfect amount of sweet and flavor :)
The Texas scramble with chipotle pulled pork was also amazing!
The biscuit and potato cakes had us moaning and overall everything was the tops :)
Also nice casual atmosphere, small tables, some areas for groups though. Good for families too. :)

This is a great brunch spot that seems to be flying under the radar of the Portland brunch junkies, despite being in the heart of the Belmont neighborhood. We showed up at 11a on a Saturday and only had to wait a few minutes.
I don’t usually order corned beef hash, but I ordered it here based on the reviews of fellow Unilocalers. They were 100% right about how flavorful it was. The large chunks of salty brisket were hearty and tender, but I had wished there was twice as much. The accomanying biscuit was also a treat. The g/​f ordered the banana pancakes, which were very fluffy and large. But I think my favorite bite was of the potato pancakes that were on my friend’s plate.

Food: To me as good as it gets! I had the baconavocado eggs with potato cakes and sourdough toast. Extremely tasty.
A nice cup of coffee that was strong and very tasty
Service: Good. No real interaction just order quick service, a refill on coffee and check.
Ambiance: A plain and simple café with stools at the bar and tables no booths.
No outdoor seating.
Meal cost $ 13
Overall a good café I went on a weekday morning so it was empty which was nice for quick service. With so many places to check out in Portland I may be back, but might be a little while.

This is a review by a vegetarian
Found through Unilocal as all other area breakfast spots opened a half hour later.
Potatoes, both cakes and pan-​fried, were pretty good, greasy, and salty. French toast was a miss. Not dry in the center but not really flavored by the custard either.
Probably not re-​visiting.

There’s a lot to love about Utopia Café. There are a number of good options in the SE, and they are one of the more cozy and comfortable, without much fanfare or wait. The scrambles are delicious and a veggie-lover’s delight (especially in the Garden) while the pancakes are fluffy, mouth-​filling, and satisfying. The eggs are slightly under-​cooked, which I really appreciate. Many restaurants, never mind nearly the entire diner category, over-​cook eggs in scrambles and omelettes, often seeming unable to cook otherwise! Utopia does their eggs just-​right, and I’m far from the most particular person about how my eggs are cooked. The buttermilk and blueberry pancakes are both ample in size, and outstanding in texture and flavor. Not my favorite maple syrup, but not a big deal. I like the blueberry pancakes at OHOP slightly better, but both contain fresh blueberries. Speaking of blueberries, the fruit bowl at Utopia is on the higher-​end of fruit bowls, though the kiwi was slightly under-​ripe.
While the pancakes I’ve tried at Utopia have been stellar or close-​to, the «French toast» was far from outstanding. The brioche wasn’t let to sit in the batter for nearly-​long enough, resulting in a dish that more closely resembled flash-​fried brioche. It was lacking in sweetness and flavor, but also in texture. That lovely inner warmth of French toast was absent, as were any semblance of vanilla, cinnamon, or sugar. The best French toast I’ve ever had was made of brioche (Bluebell Café). I’d hate to proclaim that now, also the worst has…
While I typically love hash browns, I found myself missing the grated potatoes of yesterday/​another restaurant. The diced potatoes at Utopia can be well-​done and a bit salty, while the potato cakes a found a bit too mushy. They seem to make the potato cakes with mashed potatoes instead of grated, such as how latkes are made. The result is a crispy edge but soft inner, and so I find myself eating the edges and leaving the inner to get cold and go uneaten…
The coffee is good and strong here, and the staff has been very pleasant to interact with in my experience. Prices are on the affordable side.

This is not only the best breakfast in Portland, it may be my favorite place to eat in Portland. An unpretentious, clean, efficient little diner with delicious American breakfast standards and some really nice scrambles with fresh seasonal ingredients.
Start your day of eating and drinking in Portland here.

E and I come here when we have the same days off. We usually share one of the breakfasts (I recommend the bacavo with potato cakes!) and a stack of blueberry pancakes. The food is always delicious, but it’s the blueberry pancakes that keep me coming back. They are just perfect– fluffy with the right amount of ACTUAL blueberries. I say «actual» because there are places in this town that will serve you their version of blueberry pancakes, which includes some kind of… how shall I put it… canned pie filing??? That is never what I want when I want blueberry pancakes. THIS place gives me what I want when I want blueberry pancakes. Thank you, Utopia Café, for offering a very comfortable space to dine, with service that is always excellent. LOVE. THIS. PLACE.

Best breakfast so far in Portland. We had the corned beef hash and egg, and also the Swiss scramble with potato pancake and potatoes. Everything was totally great. Everything. Service was good with constant refills on the coffee. We will be back… A lot!
Update: fast service at the expense of warmth. bacon and potatoes both tasted like they had been cooked either earlier in the day or yesterday. Bacon was cold. i hate that. i will wait the extra 8 minutes it takes to cook the bacon. Potatoes were luke warm. This does not happen all of the time but it has happened once before. One more time… And you will not be my goto place for Portland Breakfast anymore.
BTW… Hint– heat the plates so that they can impart some warmth.

Utopia Café… I am just going to think of you as an anomaly and not a representation of Portland as a whole.
We dropped on by Portland on our road trip and wanted to grab some breakfast. Entering the café, we found it to have a nice ambience with nice furnishing and excellent lighting. Very inviting. That’s was pretty much the only part inviting.
The Corn Beef hash we ordered was really well done. One of the best I have tasted. Very on point. I was not as impressed with the blueberry pancakes. They were big, but tasted very bland. I give the food 3.5 stars.
Side note, two of our orders had mistakes in them. Even after we double checked the order when he took it down.
What brought down the rating for this review was our host/​server. From my observation, he gladly provided coffee refills to ALL the other tables without anyone asking and even went ahead and asked them if they needed anything else. He never once approached our table to provide coffee refills as two of our four had coffees. It wasn’t until we asked whether we get refills then he agreed on providing one for us. I would like to note our table was the only group with people of color. This was my observation and I am very observant when it comes to this matter.
Unfortunately, I think the individual that provided service to us obviously favored specific people. We will not be recommending this establishment to any of our friends from the Bay Area as we embrace equity.

This place was solidly great for brunch.
My sister and I split an order of an egg scramble with chorizo along with their daily special of 2 lemon ricotta pancakes with marionberries. The scramble came with a side of potatoes, and they let you ½ and ½ potato pancake (amazing) and breakfast potatoes (just ok). We had a biscuit instead of toast, and it was phenomenal with the jam that was on the table. It’s not the best biscuit I have ever had, but it was pretty great. The pancakes were light and fluffy, and they were a good compliment to the rest of our meal.
Getting there around noon on a Sunday meant an approximately 20 minute wait, but that was primarily due to the fact that we were with a rather large group of 6, so we had to wait for one of the bigger tables to clear out.