We felt like getting out of the house on Boxing Day and went to IKEA. Amazingly, we hadn’t been to IKEA since it moved from Osborne Park to its current location at Innaloo. When we got there just after 10am there was a long line of people moving slowly into the store. Jac detests waiting in queues and would’ve gone straight back to the car and driven off, but there was no way I was going to get that close to my beloved Swedish meatballs and walk away! I managed to convince her to give it a go, despite the crowd. Thankfully, once we got in through the doors the store was busy, but not congested.
In anticipation of getting Swedish meatballs at the restaurant (this is an IKEA ritual for me – every time I visit IKEA I must have meatballs), I hadn’t eaten breakfast – my tummy was growling loudly and I was starting to get a headache. But when we reached the restaurant, DISMAY! A staff member greeted us, then apologised and advised: “Unfortunately we had a power failure overnight so the restaurant will be opening at 11am today.” We had no choice but to walk around the store while my tummy continued to grumble in protest.
Lunch at the IKEA Restaurant
We returned to the restaurant just before 11am and were relieved to see that everything was ready for an onslaught of now starving customers (well, at least one starving customer!). Finally, I got my Swedish meatballs! When IKEA first opened in Perth, they used to serve the meatballs with your choice of boiled potatoes or fries, but I guess due to people overwhelmingly choosing fries over boiled potatoes, there’s no more boiled potatoes option. You still get a generous serve of meatballs with cream gravy and a shiny blob of lingonberry jam. One thing they don’t do any more is stick a little Swedish flag toothpick on the dish – I presume this is a cost-cutting and/or environment-saving exercise, which I have no problem with, as the meatballs are still plentiful, tender, bouncy and delicious and fantastic value (AU$6.95 for the standard size serving, and even cheaper on Tuesdays – AU$3.50!). The chips were on the floppy side, but the cream gravy saved the day.
I bought a serve of garlic bread as well, AU$1.00 for 2 pieces. It didn’t look like anything special, but the bread was buttery with a good garlicky flavour. We had a piece each and enjoyed it very much.
Jac got herself a smoked salmon platter. She loved the dill sauce that came with the salmon and she loved the delicate triangles of bread spread with cream cheese, but it’s quite a small serve and she was still hungry after finishing her meal. She was glad she had that piece of garlic bread to eat as well. And a few of my meatballs.
Ah, meatballs. On our way out, we did pick up a bag of frozen meatballs, two packets of cream sauce mix (as per IKEA’s recommendation of two packets of sauce per bag of meatballs) and a jar of lingonberry jam, so I we can enjoy Swedish meatballs all over again at home.
A snack at the IKEA Bistro
We spent a few hours in the store that day, and just before we left, still-hungry Jac stopped at the Bistro downstairs to grab something else to eat and drink. She bought one of IKEA’s famous $1 hot dogs. Next to the meatballs, these hot dogs are my favourite. You really do get a decent sized hot dog for a dollar. I love the flavour and springy texture of the sausage. I’ve thought many a time about getting behind the counter and eating the sausages straight out of that steaming bain marie of brine. Mmmm, steaming bain marie of brine…Heheheh. I had a few bites of hot dog too. What can I say, shopping always makes me hungry!
Jac washed the hot dog down with a tall can of Swedish pear cider. She’d never had pear cider before – she found it to be most refreshing. I didn’t really like how it tasted, but then I’m not a big pear fan. I’ll eat them if they pop up in a salad, but I never buy pears to eat.
We left IKEA after a few hours of shopping with some new items for the house. I was happy, I’d had my meatballs – that’s all I really cared about. :D
Swedish meatballs recipe
You can buy the frozen meatballs, cream gravy packet mix and lingonberry jam from the Swedish Food Market at IKEA. But if you’d like to try making them yourself:
My sister Juji’s Swedish meatballs recipe, which was adapted from the IKEA Friends meatballs with cream sauce recipe
Here’s the original post featuring Swedish meatballs for dinner, cooked by Juji.
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
We don’t have IKEA here, but it sounds like a fun “day” out. Is this the IKEA I think it is? The homestore? It still seems a bit strange to me as we generally don’t have shops with integrated restaurants in South Africa.
“Mmmm, steaming bain marie of brine…” quite Homer Simpson-esque! :-) I love that.
Sorry Craig, the anti-spam plugin ate your comment – not sure why. But I retrieved and released it! Yes, a visit to IKEA is a fun few hours! Yes, it’s IKEA that sells furniture and things for the house. Most of our shops don’t have restaurants in them either, which is why IKEA is such a novelty! Hahaha, yes, I regularly channel Homer Simpson.
It’s the same as the IKEA in Malaysia . My favorites is to have the meatballs with the pear cider it is very refreshing i always had 2 cans of it whenever i went to IKEA . And the hot dogs too yum2 always bought it for take away to munch on at home :) .
The icon of Ikea- their meatballs. Love them heaps too and I used to cook the meatballs at home with pasta, stirfrys..etc So versatile!
I suppose you’ve had them already – how did your meatballs turn out? I found them a little oilier than in the restaurant, and I oven-baked mine. I also thought the recommended two packets of sauce was way overkill, unless you’re meant to have sauce soup with meatballs floating in it :) I was a bit put out that the sauce turned gloppy after adding the powder mix, I suspect you’re meant to sieve it into the cream…
I have to say, your ikea food court review is pretty awesome.
I was recently at ikea at indulged in the like 3 hot dogs and a cinnamon bun.
The hot dogs here in the Long Island store are only .50 cents.
Soda’s $1.
I love the IKEA Swedish meatballs. I tried them for the first time when I was pregnant, although our store serves them with mashed potatoes. Delish! I also bought the jam and sauce to make them at home, although I used my own recipe for the meatballs. We recently went to IKEA and tried their breakfast, which was also quite good. Man, I love IKEA!
June,
Yeah I love that the hot dogs are on the way out of the store so we can get them for a snack after all the shopping. It’s always matter of careful timing so that I can fit in the meatballs, the shopping and a hot dog on a single trip. :D I don’t go to IKEA that often, so I like to make it count!
daphne,
I love meatballs with rice too – so good.
Sam,
Actually, no, we haven’t had them yet! (Maybe that seems amazing, after all my raving about the meatballs! I’m saving them for a day when I have a serious craving). I’ll post how they turned out when we’ve had them.
xlerate,
50 cents, awesome! I couldn’t eat 3 in a sitting but I’d probably want to buy a couple to take home for later. :D
The Home Cook,
Mmmm, I’d love them with mashed potatoes too, to soak up all that gravy. We’ve been in the store early enough to have breakfast, but always I choose the meatballs! I must say the breaky looks to also be great value. We always spend a decent chunk of time in IKEA but not so long that I could fit in bacon, sausage, egg, hash brown, beans and tomatoes, then shopping, then meatballs! As you can see, I’m a one-track mind, all about meatballs! :D
I’ve never had the IKEA meatballs but I have had swedish meatballs, served in the canteen of a Swedish school – in the UK hehe – and they were absolutely delicious. Its a shame IKEA where you are don’t offer the boiled potatoes option – as that’s traditional – or even mash – as much as I like chips/fries, they don’t really ” go ” with the meatballs to my mind.
Pear cider is called Perry here – I am not a fan either as I am not keen on pears ( except spiced baked pears ) but I like the fact it exists, if that doesn’t sound weird ?
Grats on the new site by the way – very nice and thanks for all your hard work :)
Love the new site! Font is a great size ofr screen reading too.
I went to IKEA a week or so back — like you, for the first time since they’d moved from Osborne Park. Wow! What a MASSIVE store! Heaps of undercover parking for hot days, thank goodness. I remember you raving over the meatballs at IKEA and on your advice I had some for lunch ;-)
They were lovely. Not quite in my ‘rave about’ category, but lovely enough to have them again the next time I’m in IKEA.
Hi TFP!
I used to work at IKEA and used to have meatball and sauce for lunch every day! I made friends with the people serving so I always got the best bits!
I used to get free hotdogs as well! I love how they just pop when you bite into them!
I learned at a very young age to make friends with the person serving me food! At primary school, I made friends with the woman who served the desserts! She would always give me the best bit of cake and I would ALWAYS get extra crumble on my apple crumble!
Yum!
Ditto on must having meatballs. I could have all 3 meals (and 2 in between meals) at Ikea.
My favourite time to go is right when the store opens on a weekday though, and have their breakfast. I haven’t done in it a while – no RDOs mean no Ikea breakfasts :(
I always pick up the Swedish meatballs, gravy, lingonberry jam and a package of potato pancake/latke things whenever I visit Ikea here in the U.S. BTW, their cheese is surprisingly good. Give it a go :)
Heya TFP!
Long time reader, first time commenter. You can actually ask for them to give you steamed vegetables and potatoes with the meatballs instead of chips. I do it everytime :D
I used to actually go to IKEA just to eat aswell x)
I’ve never had ikea meatballs but you can get all diffrerent flavours of kopparberg cider here, summer fruits is so much better than pear.
I cant eat the meatball here. One of the ingredient is pork mince. But when we were in Msia, it was our staple food when we visited Ikea beside the normal hotdog. They used to serve boiled potato too there but changed it. Most probably Msians n Australians prefer chippies with their meatball.
I love IKEA hot dogs too! The IKEA in Singapore surprisingly does rather tasty curry puffs for a dollar each as well, tasty potato filling and a slice of hard boiled eggs. :D
yum I heart Ikea’s pear cider and their meatballs and mashed potato…delicious!! :)
Oh I love ikea!!!!!!! I am obsessed with it. Ask any friend…they know the drill. I haven’t had their meatballs but I’ll have to give it a go one of these days. I love the .50 cent hot dogs and their lingonberry softserve! Cinnamon buns to die for too! As for their breakfast here in Michigan you get eggs. Potatoes bacon and toast for a dollar!! Some special events they give breakfast for free! Mmmm I want those meatballls now!
Well…since it was *Boxing* Day and they made you wait, you should have bopped them in the nose! ;-p The meatballs look good, but yeah — those chips look a bit limp. Lingonberry jam with?? I only know that served with a side of Swedish pancakes and butter (yum). Pear cider, hmmm. I like pears and would definitely give it a try.
Do you put lingonberry jam on your hot dog, or is that ketchup? I can’t quite tell from the photo?
Have you ever tried the lingonberry juice? I’m just addicted to it at our IKEA…we have it in the US.
I love Ikea’s cider but they seem to have stopped selling them in Singapore.
Greenlady,
Well, one of the readers (Tiny) says we can ask for steamed vegetables and potatoes instead of the fries! I’ll try doing that next time… well, maybe. Meatballs and chips don’t sound so great but meatballs and chips WITH GRAVY is fantastic – I love chips and gravy. Thanks – glad you like the site. I’ve been so happy with everyone’s response so far, all your kind words make me feel really good.
Rhonda,
Thanks! Cool – I went for a larger font size this time because I think it’s easier to read in general, on the screen. Yeah, I love how the store is so big now. I remember watching The Amazing Race and seeing the original multi-storey IKEA store in Sweden in one episode – our Osborne Park store seemed so weeny in comparison. The Innaloo store is still not as impressive in size as the one on Sweden, but it’s great it’s so much more spacious than it was before. Heheheh. Well, my ravings are those of a real meatball fan!
Hi Cat!
Meatballs and sauce for lunch every day and free hot dogs, how cool! Yes – I love the texture of those hot dogs when you bite into them. That’s one thing I love about good wieners and frankfurters – that springy bouncy texture. Hahah, when I was in primary school my friend’s mum sometimes volunteered and worked in the tuckshop. On those days she’d make my friend and me a special order, not on the tuckshop menu – a crumbed sausage and tomato sauce in a buttered roll. Mmmmm, that was so delicious. And such a treat, because we knew it was a special order made only for us.
Charlene,
This is why we need deregulated trading in WA so that shops like IKEA can open 7 days a week if they want to – so people like you and I who are slaves to our jobs can go to IKEA on a Saturday or Sunday for breakfast. Saturdays are not enough as we often have to do other things (grocery shopping or other errands) – there’s just not enough time to get out to IKEA on that one day a week.
Reenie Bug,
Thanks for the tip. I don’t eat much cheese, but Jac loves it, so I’m sure she won’t need much convincing to give it a try. :)
Hi Tiny!
Thanks for that info! I will give it a shot next time. Though I may still be tempted to get chips, as I love chips in gravy. :P Yeah, I don’t think I would be as keen to go to IKEA if not for the food aspect. :)
sophie,
I’m not sure if the summer fruits flavour was available as well as the pear – I wasn’t looking when Jac bought her drink. We’ll look out for it next time for sure.
flower,
Yep, chippies are preferred by many people over the boiled potatoes! What a shame they don’t do halal meatballs here.
dea,
Curry puffs at IKEA Singapore YUUUUM! That would be so awesome. Another reason to visit Singapore!
Yin,
:D
Carmen,
Yes, definitely give the meatballs a try sometime, let me know what you think. Yeah, the breakfast at IKEA here is AU$3.50, which is dirt-cheap for a cooked breaky. We have half-price meatball days, but they’re usually Tuesdays and I’m at work so have never been there on those days to take advantage of the offer. Oh well!
LOL Cindy, at your Boxing Day comment. :D Yeah the chips were floppy, limp and rather sad. Yeah, they always serve the meatballs with the lingonberry jam here.
Jess,
It’s ketchup (we call it tomato sauce) and mustard on the hot dog. Sorry, the lighting was quite dim in the bistro section, so the colours are a little dull in the photo. I haven’t tried the lingonberry juice, no. I don’t mind the jam with the meatballs, but to be honest, prefer other berries for juice/jam.
blur ting,
Aw, that’s no good! I hate it when I like something and for whatever reason I’m not aware of, the decision is made to not stock it, or to discontinue it.
Jac was lucky enough to try Kopperberg, In my opinion one of the best pear ciders!!
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