Birthday Lunch @ IKEA

With its maze like set-up and kids' activity corners scattered throughout the store you can easily be forgiven for thinking Ikea was designed with only kids in mind. But that is exactly the beauty of it and what sets it apart from all other furniture stores. Both kids and the more mature in age will find something to hold their attention. For a family man like me it's heaven sent.



Let's get one thing straight though before I continue. I am not associated with Ikea in any shape or form. Having Swedish designed items in my house does not count! I paid for them with my hard earned cash. None were given to me for free. My whole family just genuinely enjoy the place.

I therefore did not think it odd that Yaya would request to have her birthday lunch at Ikea. Also, with a variety of reasonably priced meals how could I say no? $1 hot dogs anyone? But they are so much more than cheap reconstituted meat..

A must for a first timer are meatballs, gravy, mashed potato and chips. I don't exactly know how the Swedes enjoy theirs but that's the combination we like

One thing Yaya and I enjoy that no other family member seem to share is gravalax/gravlax (raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill). She started sharing my plate of a Swedish Open Sandwich as a toddler and has not stopped since.

Ikea is also one of the few places in Brisbane that offers bottomless drinks. Pay once and you can have as much lingonberry juice as you can handle.

There's also a variety of desserts on offer. To complete the lunch we shared some ice cream, chocoloate mousse, berry yoghurt and Swedish apple cake.

By the way, you can easily replicate the meals at home by getting the ingredients from their food store (follow an old post here).

Total bill, less than $30. Kids' smiles all around, priceless!

Lazy Wednesday evening…with IKEA food?!?!?!?!

I was up till 4am the other day. I just couldn’t sleep! The last thing on my mind was to prepare some elaborate dinner last night.

The perfect solution???!!! Well, IKEA of course! No, we didn’t start munching on computer desks and bed frames. That’s stupid (although there are some who actually do like the hint of “oak” is some of their coffee tables)! We know IKEA is famous for furniture that are both innovative and reasonably priced.

But IKEA also produces its own line of food items. IKEA food, like the brand’s furniture line, is also both innovative and well priced. Where else could you buy a Swedish bar of chocolate for $1 (they come in dark and milk)? Whatever IKEA offers in its café you’ll probably be able to purchase from their Swedish Food Market and cook at home.

What could be more IKEA than Swedish meatballs (nope, furniture is more IKEA but please go with me here!)? So for last night’s dinner we had Swedish meatballs with all the trimmings. The frozen meatballs only took 20 minutes in the oven, the gravy about 5 minutes to simmer. I served the meatballs with some generic crinkle cut chips and Caesar salad. The salad was the one that took longest to prepare.

The best thing about IKEA food…it translates well when cooked at home unlike some…