IKEA, the world-renowned Swedish furniture giant, is not just about flat-packed furniture. Part of its stores, which were visited by more than 882 million people worldwide in 2022, also include restaurants focused on Swedish specialties. After all, who hasn’t had meatballs from IKEA?
The menu includes not only iconic meatballs but also dishes made from salmon. In the Czech Republic, you can also find the popular grilled camembert cheese. IKEA restaurants often have promotions for members of their IKEA Family loyalty program, where a complete hot meal can be purchased for approximately 120 CZK (approx. 4.80 EUR). The prices are unbelievable, but how does IKEA food look and taste?
Twelve meatballs with sauce, mashed potatoes, cranberries, and peas can be purchased for a promotional price of 119 CZK (approx. 4.80 EUR). It’s a price at which you can hardly get a hot meal in Prague. While I, as a lover of mashed potatoes, would definitely skip them next time in this store, there’s nothing to fault with the meatballs for this price.
Czechs are meat lovers, and although IKEA offers a large portion of vegetarian dishes, the menu also includes pork neck with fries again for a promotional price of 119 CZK (approx. 4.80 EUR). The roasted pork neck is distinctly spiced.
For the same price, you can swap the side dish for grilled vegetables, which taste better than they look. They are not overcooked, and the mix contains a large amount of pea pods.
By 2025, IKEA has committed to offering at least half of its restaurant dishes based purely on plants. They are already heavily promoting vegetarian food, and this vegetarian wrap with falafel costs 29 CZK (approx. 1.20 EUR). The filling is rich and tasty, and for a price just slightly above one Euro, it’s a solid snack.
But they also offer desserts, such as this Swedish apple pie with whipped cream for 35 CZK (approx. 1.40 EUR). Great value for the money, the apple filling is rich, and the crumble is tasty.
And honestly, I would gladly return to IKEA just for this strawberry cup for 55 CZK (approx. 2.20 EUR). The portion of strawberries is huge, the strawberries are large and not mushy, and the dessert is not overly sweet.
Food from the restaurant can be complemented with non-alcoholic drinks from machines. You can fill your bottomless glass with, for example, raspberry soda, elderflower lemonade, or cola. Coffee or tea are also from machines. Right next to the restaurant, you can also find the IKEA cafe, where you can get espresso made from freshly ground coffee for 35 CZK (approx. 1.40 EUR) or fresh mint tea for 49 CZK (approx. 2 EUR).
IKEA restaurant and food delivery
IKEA currently does not offer food delivery, but it is possible to have food packed to take away. A large portion of the store’s customers actually take advantage of this. In the shopping centers (not in the restaurant) behind the cash registers, there is also a special section dedicated to the sale of packaged Swedish food. Here you can buy frozen meatballs or their vegetarian version, frozen salmon, etc. There’s also another bistro where you can quickly satisfy your hunger with, for example, a hot dog (also in a vegetarian version) or a cinnamon roll.
IKEA is certainly not a Michelin star restaurant and has no ambitions to be one. It’s a self-service restaurant similar to factory canteens, where you can get food very quickly and cheaply. Around lunchtime, when I visited IKEA Zličín several times, its huge restaurant was always full. After shopping, a large portion of their visitors probably head here for the meatballs. And they are satisfied, as the incredibly high rating of 4.2 stars out of five on Google Maps (with about 1700 reviews) might suggest. IKEA is also a popular place where to go for a cheap lunch in Prague.
And what about you and the Swedish meatballs from IKEA, or its other dishes? Have you tasted them? What do you think?
Source of statistical data: Statista.
The price of meals is given when using the IKEA loyalty card, which can be obtained for free.
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