IKEA has opened its first standalone restaurant in the UK, offering shoppers the chance to snap up an iconic dish.
The Swedish chain pulled up the shutters at the site on King Street, Hammersmith, London, to customers yesterday.
The restaurant, which seats 75 diners, sits next door to the newly-revamped Ikea Hammersmith City branch.
Customers heading inside are faced with self-service screens where they can order their food before heading to collect it at counters ahead of them.
There’s also a coffee station with stairs to the left guiding famished shoppers upstairs to the main seating area.
The whole spot is littered with little nods to Ikea stores too, including Swedish text on the walls and wood tables and storage containers.
Shoppers can choose from a range of iconic Swedish dishes at the new restaurant including eight meatballs with mashed potato, peas, cream sauce and lingonberry jam for £5.50.
Foodies can also snap the same dish but with plant-based meatballs for £4.95.
Also on the menu is penne pasta with tomato and basil sauce for £2.95, battered haddock, chips and peas for £6.95 and salmon with cous cous and yoghurt for £6.95.
Parents with kids can also pick up children’s pasta with tomato sauce, soft drink and piece of fruit for just 95p.
There are also two breakfast options on offer – a small cooked breakfast and a regular version.
The first comes with bacon, sausage, hash brown, omelette, baked beans and tomato for £2.75
The regular option has two slices of bacon, two sausages, two hash browns, omelette, baked beans and tomato for £3.75.
Breakfast is served until 11am each morning when the main day menu takes over.
The restaurant is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm on Saturday and 9am to 4.30pm on Sunday.
The full list of menu options is:
Cold dishes
Children’s menu
Main meals
Breakfast
Other
Matthew Gould, market manager at Ikea London City, said the retailer was “excited” to open its first standalone restaurant.
To mark the launch of the new restaurant, Ikea shoppers on the Family membership scheme can get £5 off in the Ikea Hammersmith store if they spend £5 at the restaurant.
But you will only get the £5 off if your purchase is on the same day and the offer only runs until November 30.
Ikea has been making a number of moves in recent months, including expanding the number of mobile “pick-up” points across the UK.
The concept lets shoppers order products online then pick them up from vans in Tesco car parks.
Ikea said in July it had opened its 100th mobile pick-up point as it announced plans to open a further 100.
The retailer said it wants to open half of this batch before the end of the year.
Ikea already operates over 10,000 DPD pick up points which are usually found in smaller convenience shops.
Customers can also collect orders from 20 self-serve lockers in London.
The flat-pack furniture retailer also rolled out a major change to its Family loyalty club in August.
Shoppers on the scheme can now earn points whenever they shop online or in-store.
These points can then be redeemed for rewards, which include discounts on furniture, delivery and more.
At the time of the announcement, Ingka Group, which owns Ikea, said it planned to roll out points collection for all Ikea Family members across the world by 2025.
Ikea is also eyeing up a number of smaller sites in the UK as it looks to move away from operating big warehouse stores.
It has unveiled plans for a shop on London’s iconic Oxford Street, replacing Topshop’s flagship store.
It was due to pull up its shutters for the first time in Autumn 2023, but the opening date has been pushed back twice.
Most recently, it said it had to postpone the opening date following issues with flooding in the Grade-II listed building.
Ikea is also opening a new store in Churchill Square, Brighton, with it due to open at some point in 2025.
Ikea was founded in Älmhult, Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943.
Since then, it has gone from being a tiny mail-order company to becoming one of the most well-known home furnishing brands in the world.
High costs and damage rates when transporting furniture via mail order were constant thorns in Ingvar’s side.
To help quell this issue, the furniture giant adopted the flatpack assembly method in 1953.
In 1987, Ikea opened its first UK store in Warrington, Cheshire,
This marked the beginning of its expansion into the British market.
Following the success of the Warrington store, Ikea rapidly expanded across the UK. Stores were opened in key locations, including Birmingham (1988), Leeds (1989), and Glasgow (1992).
In recent years, Ikea announced plans to open compact stores located close to our high streets.
Dubbed “XS Stores”, these aim to cater to those that live in city centres.
Ikea opened its first XS store in Hammersmith in February 2022, with a second one is planned to open in Autumn 2024 within Oxford Circus.
These stores don’t hold the full stock of the mainline stores but still have over 4,000 items to choose from, including a deli where you can get Britain’s favourite Ikea meatballs.
As of 2024, Ikea operates out of 21 UK stores and employs nearly 12,000 staff members.
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