Ikea: The joy of Swedish cuisine

Whenever I had cravings for Swedish cuisine, those four letter words would instantly conjures...

IKEA!

For people like me, Ikea is usually my benchmark to gauge a good Swedish cafe from a bad one. So far, I've yet to chance upon a bad one though or I should say I've never dine at a Swedish bistro other than Ikea.

I mean how wrong could you get with beefy meatballs drizzled over savoury brown gravy, boiled potatoes and let's not forget about the sweet lingoberry jam alright...

This is how I would eat my meatballs:
1. Slice the meatball into half
2. Dipped it in that creamy meaty gravy
3. Dash a good amount of lingoberry jam on the top part of the meatball.
4. Well, obviously you put the meatball into your mouth and start enjoying it right?

It maybe weird but trust me, the savoury meatball complements the sweetness of the lingoberry jam. These two contrasting taste never seem to out complete each other, striking a balance but still staying distinctive as you enjoy the meatball...

10 meatballs can never go wrong I tell you. Besides, it gives me excuse to fill up the remaining space in my stomach with desserts!

A must have in my opinion, the Chocolate Butterscotch Cake. Informally, also known as the Daim cake.

It's pronounced as Dime Cake not Diam cake. (Diam means shut up in Hokkien.) White cream sitting at the top of almond butterscotch biscuit base topped by a layer of milky chocolate with bits and pieces of crunchy almond nuts.

Give me a Daim cake and I'll be more than happy to shut up and enjoy the cake!

Swedish Apple Pie. Now this is what I call a apple pie! Ikea bought her up well... or I should say baked her so well :) She's sweet but not overtly sweet. They got the crust to apple puree ratio is just nice so much so that I felt like getting another one if not for the ridiculously long queue... 

Almond Cake. An almond base cake enveloped by a layer of buttercream and douse in a heap of roasted almond... It's very moist and chunky but unlike the Daim cake, this cake here isn't very sweet. I expected a strong almondish taste but it didn't happen. Maybe the sweeter Daim cake may have overpower my taste buds...

If cakes and desserts doesn't interest you, how about having cinnamon roll over a cup of coffee? At $1 for having both, it definitely worth the money. But as with MOST cheap stuffs, don't hold too much expectations from it alright?

If you notice, amongst the background, behind the cup of coffee, you might have notice a bowl of soup...

Mushroom Soup. Every spoonful of the creamy soup is always accompanied by a considerable amount of mushrooms. I've this problem when ordering soup. After the first few spoonful, I would just asked myself why in the first place I get myself a bowl of soup when I could use the money to get myself an extra cake?

If you ever wanna have simple and cheap Swedish cuisine, why not give Ikea a try?

Note that I've combined to separate visitations into one review. Enjoy!

60 Tampines North Drive 2, Singapore 528764
Tel: +65 6786 6868
Website: www.ikea.com/sg/en/
Opening Hours: 10am-11pm daily