IKEA Restaurant & Cafe at Alexandra is also known as The IKEA Food Store. According to a report published last year, the best seller is actually their chicken wings and their Swedish Meatballs are their second best sellers in Singapore selling up to 39,000 meatballs daily! If that is the case, I wonder how many chicken wings they sell each day!
IKEA Restaurant & Cafe is normally very crowded, but the good news is that their dining area is huge! It was quite easy getting a table.
There are also microwaves available should you need to heat up your food.
IKEA Restaurant & Cafe is a self-service restaurant. Its concept is similar to a school's or army's cafeteria where customers queue up to take a tray, going to the different sections to order their food. There are also trolleys specially to put trays on it to make it easier to buy lots of food! Great concept. The flip side is that the food is typically prepared before hand and place on warmers. They are not cooked on the spot.
Once you have collected your food, you will be required to pay up at the cashier. Fortunately, there was no need to lift all the trays up from the trolley. The cashier is able to tally the items without you needing to lift a finger.
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| Swedish Meatballs (10 pcs) $5.50 |
IKEA changed their Swedish Meatball recipe to make it softer and also more authentic. There were many customers who posted in IKEA Singapore's Facebook and also on forums requesting for IKEA to switch back to the previous Meatball recipe. After trying the Swedish Meatballs (made of a mixture of pork and beef), I am also one of those who prefer the previous version. This new version was way too soft, lacked texture and was not springy. The potatoes at the side were disappointing. they were hard and powdery.
Editor Note: IKEA Singapore temporary stopped the sales of their meatballs amid the horse meat scandal and sent their meatballs for DNA testing to ensure that they contain no horse meat. After the test results showed that there were no horse meat in the meatballs, IKEA Singapore released a press statement on 7 March stating that they will resume the sales of meatballs on 8 March 2013. To mark the return of the meatballs, IKEA will sell the meatballs at $0.10 per piece on 8 March 2013.
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| Chicken Wings $2.80 |
The Chicken Wings were mouthwatering. The Chicken Wings were so well marinated that even the meat on the inside were tasty and fragrant. As for the outside, the skin was so crispy. Finger licking good and addictive. It will be hard to stop at one. Almost every table in here has a plate of Chicken Wings.
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| Poached Salmon with Chives Sauce $7.90 |
The Poached Salmon with Chives Sauce was delish. A generous serving of salmon was given and the sauce complemented it perfectly. Again, the potatoes were hard and powdery.
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| Ribeye Steak $9.90 |
The Ribeye Steak served with potatoes, broccoli and mushroom sauce was disappointing. The steak was hard, tough and chewy. While the broccoli was overcooked and potatoes were powdery. The only consolation was that the mushroom sauce was quite good.
This time round, I was very disappointed with the quality of food at Ikea Restaurant and Cafe. The Swedish Meatballs, Ribeye Steak and Potatoes were terrible. The Chicken Wings are the only item that makes me want to go back. Can we have the old Swedish Meatballs back, please.
IKEA Restaurant & Cafe (Alexandra)
317 Alexandra Road
#02-00 IKEA
Tel: 6378 1604
Opening Hours: Daily 8am to 10pm (last order 930pm)
