Consilience Wines at Utopia

Thursday, December 7, 2017

We decided to give Utopia one last chance.   www.utopiarestaurant.net   We were so disappointed in the last wine dinner that we said we would never go back.  But after having a regular dinner and we were  happy with it when this wine dinner came up we decided to chance it again.  But another disappointment.

We started out with a Crab cake with blue cheese and garlic cream sauce. Crab cake was dry, had decent flavor but no moisture at all. Paired with a 2014 Consilience, Santa Barbara Chardonnay. A bit oaky but paired well with the crab

Next was a Grilled Romaine lettuce with goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. They took a half of a Romaine lettuce and grilled it. Made the upper part of the leaves very limp. Not pleasing to the eye at all. Best think about is was the dressing. I ate 2 bites and shoved it aside.  The wine was no better a 2015 Consilience Converge Red. A blend of everything in the cellar. Mainly  Syrah, Petite Syrah and Sangiovese with 3 or 4 other wines thrown in.

Third course looked great. Lobster ravioli with garlic, red peppers in a brandy cream sauce and topped with grilled shrimp. Difficult to taste the lobster. the pasta was luke warm and the shrimp were over cooked and dry. The wine was no better. A 1024 Consilience, Santa Barbara , Pinot Noir. It sucked. Thin and non-descript. 

Best of the evening was dessert. A souffle with Quady's Starboard Batch 88 port style wine.

Perhaps Utopia has a problem with getting the dinners out when they have to cook, plate and serve 40 people at one time.  During a regular dinner people come and go so the food orders come in randomly.  But they have problems so we will no longer come back.