Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.08.2015, Blaðsíða 18

18 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 12 — 2015
MADE IN ICELAND www.jswatch.com
With his legendary concentration and 45 years of experience our Master
Watchmaker ensures that we take our waterproofing rather seriously.
Gilbert O. Gudjonsson, our Master Watchmaker and renowned craftsman,
inspects every single timepiece before it leaves our workshop.
It might come as a surprise, then, to
learn that this Swedish-themed eatery
is Iceland’s most popular restaurant by
far, attracting a staggering average of
25,000 visitors per week—equivalent to
12% of Iceland’s population. In 2013, the
restaurant served up a stunning 440,000
hot meals, 140,000 helpings of ice cream,
230,000 drinks, 100,000 cakes and other
desserts and 150,000 hot dogs. And
that was two years ago—it’s only gotten
busier since.
With plans to expand the capacity of
the restaurant by 100%—from 250 to 500
seats—one cannot help but wonder: what
is it about the IKEA restaurant? Is it the
allure of ready-made furniture? The de-
lightful convenience of munching while
you browse? The infamous Swedish
meatballs? Why on earth is IKEA Iceland’s
most popular restaurant?
ÅFFÖRDÅBLE
There are restaurants in every IKEA store,
but even when compared to other loca-
tions, including ones in populous areas like
New York City or London, IKEA’s Garðar-
bær location is still unusually popular. The
proportional share of Iceland’s IKEA res-
taurant’s sales to the overall store’s sales
is 13%, while most IKEA restaurants hover
around 5%. IKEA restaurant and food de-
partment manager Friðdóra Kristinsdóttir
tells us that 7% is the max percentage any
IKEA restaurant has reached. Iceland’s
anomalous 13% is not only unheard-of—it
is actually the global leader.
Friðdóra is friendly, but very profes-
sional. Choosing her words carefully, she
pauses when asked the reasons behind
the restaurant’s popularity. “We have
high-quality ingredients,” she says, “and
it’s cheap, much cheaper than other res-
taurants in Iceland, so people can afford
to come here often.” Iceland’s small popu-
lation also helps, she believes. “Iceland is
small, so if something is going well, the news
spreads quickly.”
She is also quick to point out that the
restaurant—catering to Iceland’s notori-
ous love of toppings—provides free sauc-
es: cocktail sauce, barbecue sauce, cold
sauces, and many more, which serve to
make it an attractive place for a quick and
tasty meal.
REGÜLÅRS
The restaurant’s popularity goes beyond
quick meals, however. Though it might
seem unexpected, according to Friðdóra,
the IKEA restaurant has regulars, just like
any bar or restaurant. “It’s become a kind
of tradition for some people,” she says,
“people from the countryside, industrial
workers, older men from Garðabær—they
come regularly for breakfast.” The res-
taurant’s devoted fans know the menu
well, even the limited-time-only seasonal
meals. “I had hardly started working here,”
she recalls, “when I began hearing, ‘When
are the lamb shanks going to be back?’”
The restaurant has even, bizarrely,
hosted stag parties. Though a furniture
store might seem like an unlikely destina-
tion to raucously celebrate a bachelor’s
last night, Friðdóra concludes that these
groups come to IKEA “probably for good
food and cheap beer.” With large beers at
495 ISK, the only place that beats them is
Bar 7 during happy hour—and they don’t
offer meatballs and cream puffs. She as-
sures us that the men behave. “It’s just
fun!” she adds with a smile.
CHÅÖS
Menus vary from IKEA to IKEA. There
are some standard items that must be
featured—such as the iconic Swedish
meatballs—but each franchise has some
freedom to develop unique courses. “We
listen to the market,” Friðdóra explains.
Currently, they are bringing in healthier
options. The newest on the menu? “Veg-
gie balls,” says Friðdóra. “Now everyone’s
thinking about their health, and we want
everyone to find something to their taste.”
IKEA restaurants are also encouraged
to develop special meals for holidays, a
policy with which Reykjavík’s IKEA has
run full-force. Sprengidagur is an Icelan-
dic holiday on which it is traditional to eat
copious amounts of salt-cured mutton
and pea soup. It translates to “Bursting
Day,” so it can perhaps best be compared
to America’s gluttonous Thanksgiving
or IHOP’s notorious “Free Pancake Day.”
Charging 2 ISK for a meal, IKEA used to
offer essentially free meat and soup on
this day. The price references a popu-
lar sing-song phrase: ‘saltkjöt og baunir,
túkall’—un-eloquently translating to “salt
meat and pea
soup, two bits!”
(it’s the Icelandic
take on “Shave and
a haircut”). But as
these things go,
the deal began to
prove far too good
to be true.
“There were
individuals who
hoarded soup into
buckets,” Friðdóra
relays, “and some
who ate far too much and then threw up
in unlikely places.” She’s quick to note that
it was only a small minority of guests who
acted so repugnantly. In response to the
pandemonium, though, the restaurant
raised the price of the holiday meal from
2 ISK to 995 ISK.
GÖING FÅNCY
IKEA might be last place one would expect
to see a revival of ancient Rome’s apocry-
phal vomitoria, but that just goes to show
how beloved and culturally ingrained the
restaurant has become within Iceland.
Guests feel comfortable enough there to
have some fun and lose control. Average
the amount of visitors IKEA receives an-
nually with the population of Iceland, and
one finds that the average Icelander must
go to IKEA seven or eight times a year.
Tourists do stop by, obviously, but the bus-
iest time of the year for the restaurant is,
surprisingly enough, December—far out-
side of the tourist season—when close to
35,000 customers come through the store
every week.
Perhaps Icelanders are just really pas-
sionate about Swedish design, or perhaps
it’s the special holiday menu. IKEA hosts
gingerbread house-making lessons over
the Advent, with special cookies and des-
sert displays. “Often it’s the local CEO
himself teaching the
classes every week-
end before Christmas,”
Friðdóra tells us. It’s
fair to assume that
IKEA Sweden CEO
Peter Agnefjäll doesn’t
do this at the flagship
store in Älmhult, Swe-
den.
With the restaurant
currently undergo-
ing renovations, what
are the future plans?
“We’re going to have a sort of café in our
new area, with a bit fancier products, fan-
cier salads and sandwiches, and fancier
cakes.” Friðdóra hopes the design will
have “more of a coffeehouse feel.”
So looking for a venue to host your
stag night? A place to take your vegan
friend for a meal and some cheap beer?
Free sauces? IKEA’s Hafnarfjörður loca-
tion might just be your place.
The IKEA restaurant in Hafnarfjörður has only 18 reviews
on TripAdvisor. Mainly, these focus on the economic val-
ue of the meals—especially compared to how notoriously
expensive food in Reykjavík is. One calls it a “great value”
while another chirpily describes it as “cheap, cheerful,
and quick.” The last is somewhat sardonic: “It’s just IKEA
food! What were you expecting?” Accumulated TripAd-
visor reviews rank it at #295 out of 379 possible places
to eat in the greater Reykjavík area—indeed, it’s not an
obvious epicurean destination.
Words Hannah Jane Cohen
Photo Anna Domnick
Iceland’s Most
Pöpulår Reståurånt!
IKEA may not have Michelin stars, but it
probably has everything else you need
Is it the allure of ready-
made furniture? The
delightful convenience
of munching while you
browse? The infamous
Swedish meatballs?
Why on earth is IKEA
Iceland’s most popular
restaurant?