Sweden

It realized today I had missed one obvious (but not until it occurs to you) place to dine on a country’s cuisine.  From the title you’ve probably already guessed I trekked to north Charlotte and had lunch at IKEA.

This was my first trip to an IKEA and honestly my life will not be diminished if it’s my only trip to IKEA.  The store and the way it’s laid out to keep traffic flowing is actually ok and the products were worth checking out but the people, oh my goodness at the people.  There were just so many and quite a few had no apparent agenda except to wander slowly from side to side in the aisles.  It was like trying to navigate a moving slalom course.  I did however make it through the people maze to the restaurant portion of the store.

If you haven’t ever been to an IKEA either it’s set up cafeteria style except they have these cool carts you can put multiple trays on and have meals on wheels.  Since I just had the one tray I opted for the slide and carry option.  Apparently the Swedes like their deserts quite a bit since that’s the first section you pass followed by a case with salads and cold dishes, including a nice looking salmon dish.  Somehow a slice of Swedish apple cake found its way onto my tray.

The entrée options are limited but I knew going into it I was going for the Swedish meatballs which came with steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes & gravy plus a little lingonberry jam.

The standard $4.99 meal came with 8 meatballs and you could get 4 more for just a dollar.  I know this because of the upsell pitch the cafeteria lady made to everyone who ordered meatballs from the petite teen in front of me to the half-giant a couple of people behind me.  I stayed with the normal since I had the apple cake.  The next station had some additional sides & soups I skipped.

Finding a seat was easy, even with half of Charlotte milling around in the store, because they have more seating than most restaurants in town.  Not fancy but able to accommodate a ton of folks.  It was well lit by the floor to ceiling windows on two sides.

Now on to the food.  The meatballs were, for sure, the star of the meal and were the most flavorful of the four items although the lingonberry came a close second.  While the flavor was good the texture was a bit spongy which I’ve seen with most mass produced meatballs.  The vegetables were bland but cooked just about right, not too crunchy & not too mushy.  The potatoes and gravy were not bad but not worth spending more space on.  The apple cake was good and worth snagging.  The apples were tasty and tender and the cake had a bit of cinnamon but not a lot.  The part that looks like a pie crust was like a dense cake rather than a pastry like pie crust.  Overall I’d say this would be 3 stars out of 5, competent and filling but I wouldn’t make special plans to have it again.

I’m sure Swedish home cooking is probably better and you can find an apple cake recipe on the Tell Me More page.  There is also a video worth checking out if you have never seen a nyckelharpa.