IKEA Restaurant and Cafe

Most people don’t take much notice of the IKEA bistro at IKEA because there’s a full café there. But the bistro is actually slightly cheaper, and sells some snacks that you can’t get at the café like popcorn, ice cream cones and hotdogs.
IKEA is a maze, but the bistro is actually not hard to get to. Simply take the lift from the ground floor of Homesquare at the side of Franc Franc — the lift only goes up to the sixth floor. Get out there and you’ll be at the exit of IKEA, right where the bistro is. You’ll recognize it by the line of people queuing up!
The bistro is, well, just kind of a food stand, so the variety of food is definitely less than at the café. IKEA favorites like the smoked salmon and the potato vegetable cake aren’t available here, but there are a range of snacks instead. You can get cinnamon buns, cream puffs and others that you can’t get at the café. No worries — the signature meatballs are here too, at five meatballs for $ 9! That’s cheaper than at the café, where five costs $ 10 and ten costs $ 19. Coffee and soft drinks are cheaper here and also come with free refills too!
My mother and I were leaving IKEA today and were attracted by one of their monthly specials — shrimp toasts. At 3 for $ 10, they were pretty cheap so we joined the line and got them. Unfortunately, they were disappointing — barely warm, and the shrimp wasn’t even fully cooked. We didn’t finish it and just tossed it because we didn’t want to risk eating uncooked shrimp.
Overall, some snacks at the bistro and a couple rounds of refillable drinks is a great treat after some hardcore IKEA shopping. Just don’t get the shrimp toasts and all will be well!

I dunno ever since when people will associate IKEA with meatballs besides furniture; it is nonetheless true that the furniture of IKEA is only the second best thing in this Swedish furniture chain. From my very biased point of view, as I don’t really buy things to furnish my room nor my house, the food is the best part of the shop; I will skip all the other sections and go straight to the restaurant without batting an eye on the furniture.
To be frank, in a scale of 10 the food of IKEA (item dependent) normally would not exceed a 7, that is to say the food there is not exceptionally good; however, you must also take in the price factor into consideration in order to make a fair comparison. Say for example the meatballs that people are all crazy about; it is true that the gravy is kinda good and flavorful, the meatballs are not dry at all but they are certainly not the «finger licking good» type of grub (well…nor is the chain that uses this slogan… i’m just saying). Now how bout I tell you they cost less than $ 20 for 10 pcs of them? Given the fact that they are made by real, good quality meat makes it almost unbelievably economical. Imagine a world that $ 30 is no longer sufficient for a lunchbox while the quality is of question, the food court in IKEA is a dream come true not only for cheapskates but also those who are tired of traditional lunchboxes.
Other than the meatballs, there are a lot more for IKEA to offer; in this IKEA restaurant, which is also in the largest IKEA store in Hong Kong, you can have a proper, full blown dinner no matter solitarily or with a group of friends. For starter, they have smoked salmon or shrimp cocktail; for soup we have lobster bisque or other soups of the day. Main course varies from fish to roast beef and there are plenty to choose from for dessert as well. Basically it is quite a hardy 4 course meal but the price is FARRRRRR lower than those in a restaurants, including the ones in Hong Kong style western diners.
So how would you not love this place with good food and good price; if I live close enough to Shatin, i wouldn’t mind eat here like 5 days a week at all~