Ikea

Can’t go wrong with the froyo here, $ 1.05 including taxes. I usually get one before I head into the store and it’s gone before I start shopping. :(
Also got herring in a jar. I loved herring when travelled in the Netherland. I hope it tastes as good as the ones I had there. There’s also a mix and match candy section!
Just don’t like the crowd…

We came to eat at the cafeteria today at about 4pm. Would it kill them to have their items on the menu actually made? No mashed potatoes, no shrimp sandwiches. And the tables– both upstairs and downstairs are continuously not wiped down. It was just plain gross. I don’t get it.

Shopping at IKEA can be a blessing or a burden. Lately it has been awful! They are chronically understaffed making the shopping experience verging on nightmare proportions.
I needed 1 meter of fabric but no one was around. Unfortunately this is the one department where you can not help yourself. After 5 mins I phoned the store, jumped through the automated hoops to reach someone. They then tried to find someone to send over. It took in total over 14 mins before anyone showed up to help!
I had come to Ikea to buy a shoe rack. Unfortunately that entire department was under construction! Argggg! I ended up in ‘as is’ found a shoe rack and worked backwards to figure out where the stock was! I bought one ‘blind’ came home, put it together, it looks good!
Still love the products just can’t handle the struggle to get them!
Heads up IKEA, get more staff on board!

Look, I’m not going to blow smoke up your ass and tell you the food is fantastic. If anyone says the food is fantastic, they need their taste buds checked. HOWEVER, the food is fine. I don’t recommend the eggs for breakfast but if you’re a sausage eater, their sausages have a nice spice to them and the hashbrowns are fried potatoes. They’re good.
What I will tell you is their coffee is pretty fantastic. And it’s part of their $ 1 breakfast (at least it was when I went). For a dollar, you get a plate full of food and a pretty good coffee that might be refillable.
Then you get to go shopping! It’s like a little bit of heaven. FOR A DOLLAR plus the hundreds you’ll spend shopping but overlook that part.

This is my first visit to the new improved richmond Ikea. Heaps of parking which is great, but about 50% of the store was behind tarps disorganized and unfinished. The best part is their cafeteria is giant, and therefore easy to find a quiet chill spot away from other people :) They are now selling candy be the weight. Not a drill, get to ikea for delicious and odd candies!

What a crummy experience! It is true, they sell items you can’t really get anywhere else, but I have had such a horrible experience every time with so many rude employees that shopping at this Ikea is just not worth the trouble. Plus Ikea has stupid store policies so I always worry if anything I buy is defective and has to be taken back. (Some staff are really great, and I want to hug them, but they are few and far between)
What really did it for me today was waiting for some food downstairs, I had a young, polite man take my order with a woman scowling over his shoulder at us like she was so put out to be there, like literally, scowling. I wanted to take a picture. Did not say a word and just held her arm out with my husband’s ice cream and I kid you not, literally standing there looking the other way like we were such jerks for being there, so I took it and said thaaaaank you! with a big smile, because I love being served with attitude. (Really I do!)
Most of the tables were dirty, the stupid legoberry drink, whatever it was called tasted like water as I think they were almost out, (or maybe… it just sucks) and 1 of two pop machines out of service.
Whole place is just depressing and sad. Does not seem to fit their cheery magazines and corporate mandate.
I don’t think I will be giving Ikea any more of my money, ever.

Great place for cheap breakfast ($ 1 for two pieces of sausages, eggs, and diced hash)! Free coffee/​tea half hour before the IKEA store opens. Inexpensive lunch/​dinner menus. They are known for their meatballs (which now also comes in the vegetarian and chicken versions)! Once in awhile some menu items will be on sale. Always friendly service and very flexible with substitutions (ie breakfast no eggs, more hash). Always ample seating (although for some reason this location is always super busy even during weekdays). Family-​friendly — there’s an area for kids to eat and play. And remember to return your food trays when done! Now you can walk the food off and browse some IKEA showrooms :)

I go to Ikea once in awhile and love the food here. Inexpensive price and wide selection. Totally enjoyed cheesecake ($ 2.99) and coffee ($ 1) they were so delicious. I wanted to get coffee in a paper cup and too bad they no longer have those cups. Good for environment at least. I saw a family ordering Haddock and Chips which looked really good.
Nowadays they sell Lingonberry Sundae, chicken meatballs, veggie meatballs, candies and heart waffles. FYI you have to weigh candies and print the price sticker your own. Can’t wait to go to Ikea again. Love their pear soda, coffee, chocolate sandwich cookies and meatballs.

I always come here for my Swedish meatballs fix! Paired with mashed potatoes & piping hot gravy, it’s great — for cafeteria style food.
The fish & chips here is decent too. I like the fries as they’re usually not too over-​salted.
Sides I usually get are the veggie medallion, and garlic bread. Both are pretty tasty.
The $ 1 breakfast (2 mini sausages, hashbrowns, & scrambled eggs) is a great deal too but the taste & portion size are alright — just expect what you pay for. I always need 2 sets to fill me up! :P
Coffee & tea are refillable.
I also love buying pillows & random household items & toys here. DIY fun & decent prices on furniture & other stuff!

Call me grumpy but this was my 2^nd visit to IKEA in less than a week. Went to pick up some Algot for storage and a desk. My first visit to the Coquitlam location was 90% successful but we couldn’t get 9 of the shelves we wanted because even though they were showing they were available, they couldn’t be found. Fast forward to today’s visit to find those elusive 9 shelves. And Fffffffff of course they wouldn’t have it in the Richmond one either. I had checked an hour before I arrived so found it difficult to believe that over 40 had been snagged before I showed up. Yeah it’s the end of the month so people are moving but seriously? 40+ of them? Also, were looking for another product and they only had 10 of them (small item). Maybe it’s just low inventory for the week but I’ve never had a trip to IKEA where several items were out of stock.
Our cashier was also incredibly annoying. She wouldn’t listen at all when I spoke to her. Even telling her nicely to wait a second so I could tell her how many items there were. She insisted on doing it her own way and refused to believe any of the quantities we told her, thus making the process longer than necessary. When the cashier takes longer than self checkout, something’s not being done properly or well.
Now I have to make my third trip in less than a week just to get the rest of the stuff on the list. I’m so frustrated!
I’ll give a shoutout for the low emissions parking spots. I liked using that perk.

Nice designed-​furniture at good price.
I visited here a few times to buy shelving units and a couple of drawer chest, and other small stuffs. Staffs are friendly, but then always very busy. My only complaint is IKEA’s rate of defective items.
One shelving unit I bought was, just in a little-​slight degree, bent and twisted, which I didn’t bother to return. Another shelving unit I bought had quite a few, little chips and dent on its shelves.
Of one of the drawer chests, of a lot of bolts it consisted of, there was only «one» missing bolt, which was integral part of, then I could do without, so I didn’t bother to return either. (Then I thought it is little weird to have DIY unit to have a missing part.)

For us Ikea is worth the border crossing for certain products. Great selection of kitchen cabinets.
If you have designed your cabinets on the US Ikea website, be warned you won’t be able to get to your design. Either print you plans ahead of time, or use the
website.
Certainly worth the trip.
Also, I feel so safe at Ikea due to all their warning signs. For instance, in the mens room there is a warning sign that indicates that you should not fill up a glass of water for drinking from the urinals. I wonder if they had problems with that, the sign sure prevents me from filling my glass.

Went for breakfast at 9:30 am when they just opened. The heart waffles as cute as they are were hard and chewy, like someone made them at 7 am then left them out for 3 hours. The seating area wasn’t cleaned the night before… took a while to find a crumb free table (remember the restaurant just opened). The kids play area in the restaurant was just plain nasty, there was dried milk? Dripping down the side of the toys, sticky syrup all over things that babies touch… gross.
Went to the self check out, unfriendly Indian woman standing there eyeing everyone, but offering no help. Apparently I forgot a $ 4 item in my cart and she asks in a demanding way if I plan on paying for it. Uh no lady I just paid $ 350 for stuff for my living room, I was planning on stealing something worth $ 4…seriously. IKEA get it together.

By Odin’s beard! This store has everything, even kitchen sinks — so you can’t say they have everything but. You can buy a table and delicious Swedish meatballs to eat on it.

Worst EXPERIENCE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE.
Came here to set up a pax for my vanity room.
Spent 5 hours with an ikea employee putting together my pax closet etc. I am not sure what was wrong with her because she screwed something up and had to do the entire invoice again, which made me loose the delivery date which was for the next day to 2 weeks… LIKE WTF!
Anyways thats not even the BIGGEST PROBLEM here,
I went and paid for my invoice and i made sure to tell her that i want EVERY SINGLE SERVICE they have to put all my stuff together, deliver and mount everything.
I get a call a week later from the delivery company telling me that i did not pay for the assemble or mounting and only paid for delivery and that i had to go ALL THE WAY BACK TO RICHMOND and pay for those services.
I said theres no way i am doing that and than he told me they wouldn’t even be able to deliver the stuff until the end of the month… like how could this be happening to me. i just did not understand .
Bottom line THEY HAVE THE WORST DELIVERY SERVICE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. It is not ikea the delivers the products it is actually a company that they pay to do so. WORD OF ADVICE FIND YOUR OWN DELIVERY GUY, AND ASSEMBLE GUY DO NOT GO TO THESE GUYS!

[Swedish Meatballs]
Ikea Richmond has a fancy new store for all your DIY home furnishings. However, I rarely buy things from here and tend to come more often for their food. So this review is purely for their edible offerings. Their cafeteria is huge, modern, and filled with all the Swedish furniture you’ve come to expect from this blue and yellow big box store.
The one thing Ikea’s got going for them is the price. 20 meatballs and mashed potatoes for under $ 7? Yes please. While their meatballs don’t scream AAA beef, some of their other dishes are actually quite good. Their salmon plate is my current fave — this includes two veggie medallions (highly recommended) and steamed potatoes and legumes. The chicken plate is also very decent. Having a bottomless pit for a stomach, I often have to top up my entrée with a bunch of sides. $ 1 garlic bread, $ 3 salad, $ 2.5 soup, and $ 2 desserts are the preferred coma-​inducing choices. The food quality is good considering you’re eating in a store cafeteria. Value is the best part of it — I can stuff my face and not go much over $ 10. My eyes are often bigger than my stomach and i end up with way too much food but at least it doesn’t break the bank.
Accessibility and parking are easy and plentiful though it does get rather busy on weekends. If you’re looking at a cheap, quick meal, this might just fit the bill.

A five star, keeping in mind that it is IKEA, a furniture store. To be honest, I eat here more than I shop here.
I think the food’s price point is very lucrative for a quick lunch/​snack/​dinner. If you like meatballs, keeping in mind that that won’t be top of the line, truffle, grade AAA beef meatballs. For the prices, it is great. You can add ten additional meatballs for pretty much less than $ 5. Also, in addition, you cn do roasted chicken + soup+ bread for $ 7.99 and don’t even get me started on the cheap deserts.
My favorite meal is 20 meatballs, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes + gravy. Expect food coma after though.
For the health nuts, like myself, that want to have a quick cheap lunch, Ikea has the Salmon. It’s great if you get it without the sauce and you can add steamed veggies for a low carb meal. Also, you could add garlic bread for $ 0.50.
Pro Tip: I just noticed that they carry beer as well. They don’t have a great selection but perfect for a little lunch drink! ;)

Did you know that Ikea purposely makes their stores into a maze so that customers feel a little disoriented which compels them to pick up extra purchases compared to a more straight forward design? Well for most of us it works.
I love and hate this place, I mean it has tons of stuff and that’s great but when your girlfriend is a self proclaimed personal-​personal designer and tons of that stuff ends up on your damn cart that you have to push through the damn maze it gets pretty DAMN STUFFY!!! * exhales… I digress. Some of their products are really well priced, some others seem way too expensive for the quality but all in all it’s fun.(kinda)
What do I go for? well other than shelving units for my kicks… I go there for what every other asian in the lower mainland goes for, THE CHEAP FOOD. The horse meat balls (alleged) the fish and chips, the bottomless lingonberry juice are where it’s at. I used to die for the mac and cheese but it looks like they retired that mess unfortunately. Where else can you feed a family of 5 for $ 20? freaking nuts I tell you.
I enjoy the end products I currently have from Ikea but here’s my advice. Have fun with your allen keys and taking 8 hours to put together your shiny new desk. Really though, is that what it’s like in Sweden? if so they must be really laid back people who have tons of patience or else there’d be tons of broken wood laying around the country and allen key attacks on the daily.

The restaurant is finally open again so that’s a real plus! TONS of parking, both undercover and open lot but when it’s raining and you’re moving big heavy stuff to your car then it can be a race to find a spot. Ever since the renovation I feel like it’s more confusing to navigate around the different sections, this could just be me but when we went on the weekend we were at a dead end after kitchen storage and eventually had to walk backwards to get downstairs to check out. We love Ikea, and we were proactively trying to look at different furnishing pieces for our move in May so we spent a good 2.5 hours there just walking around taking photos. I love that they have recycling and garbage containers everywhere, so when you eat at the restaurant or concession you don’t have to worry about carrying your trash around with you the whole time. We will definitely be back!
PS. Tried the Lingon or Lindon berry sundae for the first time and it was pretty good! tasted like dried cranberries.

Strike is over but I was informed after asking, that the crew won’t go back to work till December. Maybe I’m not informed enough, but I wonder. If the striking staff needed better wages and such, why aren’t they working now? Sure the food wasn’t good before they went on strike, but it was better before at the old location. So what happened? What changed?
Another thing I’d like to know is why it had to go on so long? Guess I’m not informed enough, but I wonder just what blunders happened to cause all of this. Yet people still shopped here and nobody cared about the strike.