This is a place to grab a quick bite and off you go shopping for household items. Do not expect it to be like a restaurant. No ambience whatsoever. No waiters or waitresses to serve you food. It is self service and more like a Canteen to me!

Maybe they should name it IKEA Staff and Visitors Canteen!

Since the place is so crowded on weekends, you will find people standing next to your table waiting for you to vacate your seats. “Hey, I still have 5 meatballs left on my plate. If I take 1 minute to eat one, it will be 5 minutes waiting time.” Very much reminds me of the hawker centre. But do not book seats with tissue paper here. It gets easily blown away by the large and bulky items that people carry.

So why come all the way to Tampines to eat in this cafe? The only good reason is the shopping at IKEA and the Swedish meatballs and 3 star chicken wings. Of course if you are an IKEA member, you will get your drinks free.

Also you are encouraged to clean up your meals after finishing them. There is a counter in the centre of the “canteen” where you can deposit your dishes.

So if this is you first experience to this Cafe, perhaps it will be your last. Unless you are really famished! Always remember to take your meals before you head down to IKEA. We ate once at Alexandra and once in Tampines - that’s it. If you want ambience, you will find a noisy one here. Anyway, when you step into IKEA to do your shopping, the unpleasant experience you find in the Cafe will soon be forgotten....until you step back into it again.

For me IKEA is a great place to find furniture and household accessories (Full Stop).

I loveee going to Ikea ever since like 10 years ago when I moved to my current home at Sengkang. I was super excited when they opened at Tampines! (Just a 5 mins drive from my place!)

I go there pretty often nowadays just to grab a bite. I love their Fresh Water Shrimp. Cheap and fresh. And on Tuesdays or Wednesday, their Fish & Chips (sometimes with Sambal chilli) is my favourite too!

I know many recommended their Meatballs, but I’ve never tried it. Last time cause I don’t eat beef, but now when I start eating beef, I can’t eat pork. So never am I going to try their famous meatballs. (Maybe one day they will change to all beef or combine beef and chicken?)

Oh ya! Their chicken wings! How can I forget! Juicy and yummmmmy!! I know its unhealthy and fattening, but how can I resists??

No where to go, go Ikea Tampines! Best part is, parking is free!!

We all hear so much about the Swedish meatballs and, well basically Ikea Tampines’ restaurant. What about it being bigger, with more tables and food and stuff. Well, I really don’t know if it really is that great after all.

To begin with, I must say that they put their creativity into good use when thinking of how to make dining more convenient. As it happens for many when ordering food, usually one tray is not enough to hold all our plates and Ikea has a solution to this. If we can use trolley when shopping for groceries, why not the same for food? With it being my first time there, I was really impressed by the three-tier trolley.

To make dining more enjoyable, Ikea has kindly offered to push your trolleys back for you after you’ve ordered your food. However, I feel that the place is shorthanded and there are constantly trolleys around that gets in the way.

So, after getting a table, I went to order my food. Despite the horribly long queue, I was surprised to be out of it real soon. The concept of taking your own food and having to make minimum orders was quite a smart idea as the queue moves faster this way.

I ordered their Spaghetti with meatballs ($7 ) and a poached salmon ($6.50). Price sounds fine, but I must say the servings are really small and the quality of the food is not that great after all. The meatballs are actually.. no big deal. It does not go well with the spaghetti, and it does not have any unique taste (or so I was expecting). Kinda overrated I’d say. The side dish for the salmon was bad, literally. The broccoli looked like some withering old plant (you won’t want to see it, what more eat it); the potato was really hard.

Having to wait 20min for a table just for this (apart from the free flow of drinks that could be a plus point).. nah, not worth it..

Its good to be an Ikea member. You not only get to accumulate points to redeem for vouchers for your furnishing needs, you get free coffee/tea too! I would suggest people staying around Tampines to start a shopping list of items from Ikea now, and one you reach $300 total, go buy those stuff and apply for the Ikea card!

This new outlet allows more people to enjoy their free flow of coffee/tea and good food at any one time. However, sad to say, they do not have wifi there. Else it’ll sure attract more people to go. And if they bring down their power switch to allow public access, wow! that’ll be too good to be true. (But guess this they’ll probably have to start charing $3 for a cup of free flow coffee/tea. Haha!)

But still, a good place to go for lunch/dinner. Especially if you’re working/staying around the area.

Some people say it is overrated, some people say it is microwaved junk food, some people say it is over priced.

BUT WHO CARES.
I GET OCCASIONAL CRAVINGS and I’D LOVE TO THANK IKEA for opening at TAMPINES so it is more within my reach.

I will NEVER get sick of its Swedish Meatballs and that ligonberry (did I spell it right?) jam thing...damn.

Though their Salmon’s never fresh till my expectation, the buttery-lemony sauce masks everything so cunningly I ‘HATE’ IKEA.

I’m abit perverted and I actually love over-boiled broccoli. I won’t like it if it is not soft like IKEA’s haha.

AND, it is not too expensive, and it helps when food in GIANT (Tampines) SUCK BIG TIME.

NEVER, NEVER EAT AT GIANT.

Been to Tampines Ikea for more than 3times and their Swedish Meatballs are my favourite! I didnt really mind the crowd because it still short. Ordering was of no hassle since everything is laid there for the staff to dish out. The only problem was probably getting a table at certain times. Apart from the crowd at peak hours, i think most of the time ALOT of people forgot to clear their own table after a meal or they simply cant be bothered. It is probably a bad habit of us, since everything is cleared for us in eg. foodcourt.

I remember reading somewhere at the restaurant that appeals to customers to help clear their cutlery after meals (or was it place it at the cleaning station?) but i guess most people either ignore or simply forget. They do have a few staff helping to clean but with the crowd, they simply are not able to clean everything on their own..

So the next time you are there, maybe we can help by clearing our own dishes You are not only helping the staff but also the people waiting to sit at your table!

The meatballs have always intrigued me as everyone keeps raving about it but due to my religion I’m not able to eat it. But its ok, the salmon is my ultimate favourite until today. If i ever go Ikea its always on a friday as that is the day they have the fish and chips too. The salmon may be small in portion but for the price that Im paying, i dont mind. It even tastes good. The sauce is my favourite and i like the broccoli that comes along with it.
The chicken wings are definitely the highlight.

Crispy, hot and tastes oh so sinfully good. Itll b good if they used thighs too. Cant help it i love the thighs more than the wings.

Desserts are good too. Tried the daim cake.yummy. Its like a tart but with daim goodness in it. The princess cake is not bad too. Though my favourite is still the daim cake.

Have yet to try the asian dishes though. Heard the halal nasi padang is passable but a bit on the pricey side for nasi padang.

If you are an ikea friends member(my dear mom is), can get complimentary drink or something. Not too sure but it is worth it to be an ikea friend.