Inside Ikea’s first standalone restaurant in London

Love Ikea food but don’t want to go furniture shopping? Time to head to London, as Ikea has opened its first standalone restaurant in Hammersmith.

The Swedish furniture giant has decided to become a food service player like any other, or almost. Ikea has replicated all the codes of its in-store canteens in a standalone space that no longer requires customers to navigate the aisles in order to grab a bite to eat.

Of course, diners will find meatballs and their vegetarian counterparts on the menu. Indeed, Ikea’s iconic dishes are now being served in what is the Swedish furniture giant’s first-ever restaurant outside a store. In other words, anyone who feels like indulging in Ikea‘s mashed potatoes will no longer have to wind their way through the various aisles of sofas and lamps in order to get their fill. In London’s Hammersmith district, Ikea has replicated all the codes of its in-store canteens in a standalone space on King Street, a busy part of this corner of the British capital between Richmond and Notting Hill.

Ikea opens its first standalone restaurant in London

In the place of a former sushi and bento restaurant, Ikea is now welcoming customers to a 75-seat eatery serving dishes including fish and chips, pasta with tomato sauce, and salmon with couscous. Like the catering outlets in its stores, the space is laid out as a self-service area with pay stations. Customers can come from breakfast — when omelettes, bacon and hash browns are served — through to dinner. According to the Guardian, the Ikea standalone is also serving items from its bistro and café menus, such as ice creams, a selection of desserts, and hot dogs. Plus, customers can enjoy the traditional Swedish “fika” break with coffee and a sweet treat.

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However, this Ikea eatery is not a restaurant like any other. There is no music, for example, and customers can also sit down to work in the restaurant. Unsurprisingly, Ikea hasn’t opened this eatery just anywhere. The restaurant is, in fact, attached to the retailer’s brand-new Hammersmith store. Above all, its opening comes at a time when many people in the UK are feeling the effects of a cost of living crisis. Household food budgets have been impacted by soaring inflation, reaching a record +19% in March 2023. But while the pace has slowed since the summer, food prices remain very high. As such, dishes like children’s pasta with tomato sauce for £0.95 (approx. THB 42), or veggie meatballs with mashed potatoes, peas, cream sauce and lingonberry jam for £4.95 (approx. THB 220), could find plenty of takers.

This story is published via AFP Relaxnews.