The Best Raw Vegan Restaurant in Salt Lake City: How Omar Abou-Ismail Created Utah's Most Transformative Dining Experience at Rawtopia

Walk into Rawtopia Living Cuisine and Beyond on a Tuesday afternoon, and you'll find Omar Abou-Ismail doing what he does best—transforming sprouted sunflower seeds and almonds into something that shouldn't work but absolutely does. His hummus contains zero chickpeas. His pizza crust is made from dehydrated buckwheat. His chocolate cake has never seen an oven. And somehow, impossibly, customers keep saying things like "the diversity of flavors and spices from dish to dish was astounding."

This is Utah's most radical raw vegan restaurant Salt Lake City has to offer, tucked into the Olympus Hills shopping center in Millcreek where you'd least expect to find food that challenges every assumption about what restaurant cuisine should be. One reviewer from Park City put it simply: "Wow....wow! Amazing. The owner was super personable, and the food was off the charts."

From Geophysicist to Food Alchemist: The Story Behind Rawtopia's Raw Food Revolution

Omar Abou-Ismail was raised in Nigeria, West Africa, and then Lebanon. He moved to Utah at age 17, studied Geophysics at the University of Utah, and graduated in 2002. For a couple years, he worked as a geophysicist for a company contracted with the U.S. Navy, specializing in unexploded ordinance control in Hawaii. That's where most people's stories would continue down a predictable path—career advancement, maybe a master's degree, the comfortable trajectory of scientific work.

But in 2004, everything changed. Omar's father was diagnosed with cancer, and he had to come back home to take care of his dad and family. Shortly after his father passed away, Omar became convinced that the world had little accountability towards diet and the correlation between diet and health.

Here's the thing about loss—it either breaks you or it transforms you into something you never imagined becoming. For Omar, it was the latter.

He was lucky enough to be raised by his mother Jinan, who happens to be a great chef. Her skills came from her grandparents and her sustainable lifestyle living in a small town in the mountains of Lebanon. Jinan is also the head chef at Mazza Middle Eastern Cuisine, and she's been cooking alongside Omar at Rawtopia since the beginning. "I'm naturally talented in creating food, and my research in health and wellness pushed me to create healthy cuisines that not only were healthy, but very flavorful and delicious. Given my Nigerian/Lebanese background with spices and different world cuisines..." Omar had found his calling.

On July 4th, 2005, Omar opened Living Cuisine Raw Food Bar in a hole-in-the-wall space he rented inside Herbs for Health in Sugar House. Before opening, he'd been teaching food preparation classes at Wild Oats (now Whole Foods), building a following through word of mouth. Twenty years later, after multiple moves and an evolution that would include wild salmon and bison alongside the raw vegan offerings, Rawtopia has become the organic restaurant Millcreek considers one of its most innovative dining destinations.

The Rawtopia Experience: Where Lebanese Tradition Meets Living Cuisine

Before dining at Rawtopia, it's wise to set aside expectations of what certain foods should be. A pizza doesn't need a doughy crust. A hamburger doesn't require a bun. A burrito tostada can exist without beans. If you can suspend your culinary preconceptions, you'll be rewarded with something genuinely transformative.

The menu reads like a love letter to both Omar's heritage and his commitment to enzyme-rich, nutrient-dense food. You'll find liberal use of ingredients like ginger, turmeric, coriander, mint, tahini, dried plantains, and za'atar—a wild oregano harvested by the owner's relative in Lebanon.

Start with the tabouli ($8). One seasoned raw food blogger who visited years ago described it this way: "The Tabouli was a-ma-zing! It tasted just like the traditional tabouli I used to get at my favorite Lebanese restaurant!" Omar's version stays true to his Lebanese roots while incorporating the sprouted, enzyme-preserving techniques that define living cuisine.

The hummus ($8) is where things get interesting. Omar's hummus is unique in that it's not made with garbanzo beans, but rather sprouted sunflower seeds and almonds. Abou-Ismail explains that beans are harder to digest, so he reimagined this Middle Eastern staple entirely. The result? "It was creamy and garlicky and disappeared from our table."

For something heartier, the Falafel Bowl has earned cult status among regulars. The dish features live tahini dressing over mixed greens, topped with zucchini, tomatoes, onions, celery, olives, avocados, gorgeous sunflower sprouts, and dehydrated nut/seed falafel biscuits. It's filling, it's flavorful, and it proves that raw food doesn't mean leaving the table hungry.

But here's where Rawtopia defies easy categorization as just another raw vegan restaurant—since moving to Millcreek in 2017, Omar expanded the menu to include sustainably sourced proteins. The egousi stew ($18, or $29 with wild salmon) has become a signature. This West African-inspired dish features spinach, chard, and collard greens cooked down and pureed with ginger, pumpkin seeds, and almonds, served with slices of plantains, black rice, and a raw side salad to help with digestion.

The pasta with nutballs deserves its own paragraph. One regular customer describes it perfectly: "The dish is a zucchini noodle pasta on a bed of leafy greens, topped with tomato, avocado, bell pepper, red onion, olive, basil-pesto, heirloom marinara sauce, cashew alfredo sauce, sprouted almond-sunflower seed cheese, and hemp seed. Heavenly."

And then there's dessert. Rawtopia is famously known for its organic raw desserts. The chocolate cake has achieved legendary status—customers specifically order it with an emphatic "of course." It's made from almond flour, sprouted buckwheat, flax, chia seed, arrowroot, and love, layered with raspberry cream and topped with chocolate frosting. It's decadent, it's gluten-free, and it will make you question everything you thought you knew about raw desserts.

Every dish includes "love" as an ingredient on the menu. At first, you might think it's cheesy. But spend five minutes watching Omar work, or talking with the staff, and you realize it's not marketing—it's the actual operating principle of this gluten-free restaurant Salt Lake City depends on for inclusive, safe dining.

From Martha Stewart to Millcreek: Rawtopia's Growing Recognition

In May 2024, something remarkable happened. Martha Stewart visited Rawtopia while in town for a conference. Omar happened to be there but didn't recognize her. She loved the food so much she posted about it on her Instagram story. A few days later, her producers contacted Omar and asked him to come to New York to film an episode of "Martha Cooks" on Roku.

Omar went to New York and filmed with Martha Stewart, featuring his restaurant and sharing dishes like bean-free hummus, tangy Lebanese tabouli, miso soup, and sweet potato fries. For a restaurant that started in a hole-in-the-wall twenty years ago, appearing on Martha Stewart's cooking show represents not just personal validation for Omar, but recognition that living foods and enzyme-rich cuisine deserve a place at America's culinary table.

The media attention hasn't changed the restaurant's core mission. As Omar puts it: "Let's take care of the planet. Let's take care of our bodies, and let's be more conscientious about these things."

Rawtopia's Role in Utah's Organic Restaurant Movement

What makes Rawtopia special in Salt Lake City's increasingly sophisticated food scene isn't just the raw food techniques or the 100% organic, non-GMO ingredients. It's the inclusivity. When some vegan diners complained that the restaurant added meat, Abou-Ismail explained he had the best of intentions when he expanded the concept—he didn't want to leave out omnivores or those diners who like their foods cooked.

This philosophy reflects something deeper about Utah's wellness culture. The state has one of the highest concentrations of people with dietary restrictions—whether from celiac disease, food sensitivities, or lifestyle choices. One regular customer explains why Rawtopia has become her go-to spot: "The food is fresh and delicious and as someone who can't eat dairy this is my favorite place to go because I can literally order anything on the menu. In addition, The owner is wonderful. He makes you feel welcome every time you go in."

The restaurant's commitment to sprouted foods, low-temperature dehydration, and enzyme preservation puts it at the forefront of the plant-based restaurant Utah scene. Everything is made from scratch. Omar often visits Utah's farmer's markets to pick up fresh produce and sources wild meat like bison, salmon, and cod from local farmers who follow healthy farming practices.

The restaurant now serves brunch on Sunday mornings from 10am to 2pm, in addition to wine, beer, and liquor during all opening hours. There's outdoor seating for sunny Utah days, and the interior features cool artwork and zen-like furnishings that create a peaceful, conscious dining atmosphere.

Planning Your Visit to Rawtopia

Location: 3961 S Wasatch Blvd, Millcreek, UT 84124 (in the Olympus Hills Shopping Center)

Hours:

• Sunday-Thursday: 11am-8pm
• Friday-Saturday: 11am-9pm
• Sunday Brunch: 10am-2pm

What to Order: First-timers should try the combination platters, which let you sample multiple dishes. The Tabouli/Hummus/Broccoli Soup combo is a perfect introduction to Omar's Lebanese-influenced approach. Regulars report coming back about once a year and finding "it's still the highest quality food, most flavorful."

Don't skip dessert. The chocolate cake is non-negotiable. The raw chocolate crème pie with caramel fudge filling runs a close second.

Rawtopia is rated 4.8 stars by 123 OpenTable diners and has nearly 500 photos on Yelp from customers documenting their experiences. The restaurant offers takeout (call 801-486-0332) and delivery through Uber Eats.

Parking is available in the shopping center lot. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible and has gender-neutral restrooms.

Instagram: Follow @omarsrawtopia for menu updates, specials, and behind-the-scenes looks at the sprouting and dehydration process.

Why Rawtopia Matters to Utah's Food Scene

In a state known for comfort food and meat-heavy cuisine, Rawtopia represents something quietly revolutionary. It's not preachy. It's not exclusive. It's a family-owned organic restaurant where a Lebanese Druze American who started as a geophysicist and his chef mother have spent two decades proving that food can be both radically healthy and genuinely delicious.

One customer who's been visiting for six years sums it up: "I can't believe it's been 6 years since my first review! Me and my husband have been coming about once a year since that first visit! It's still the highest quality food, most flavorful, and so [good]."

The raw vegan restaurant Salt Lake City's health-conscious community has embraced isn't trying to convert anyone. It's simply offering an alternative—one where sprouted sunflower seeds become hummus, where zucchini transforms into pasta, and where a former bomb technician turned raw food alchemist can cook alongside his mother and Martha Stewart in the same lifetime.

If you're looking for the best organic restaurant Millcreek offers, or if you need a truly safe gluten-free dining experience, or if you're just curious what twenty years of dedication to living foods tastes like, Rawtopia is waiting. Just remember to save room for the chocolate cake.