Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.03.2016, Qupperneq 50

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Do not miss !
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N E W A W A R D
B E S T T H A I F O O D 2 0 1 5
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A L S O B E S T 2 0 0 9, 2 0 1 0, 2 0 1 1, 2 0 1 2, 2 0 1 3 a n d 2 0 1 4
m a n y f a m o u s p e o p l e a r e r e g u l a r s h e r e“ “
BanThai
FOOD
MOSTLY TASTY
22
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2016
Aiming for a
homey menu
and atmosphere,
the IKEA restau-
rant prides itself
on a cheap and
varied selection
of courses. I got
a three courses,
consisting of an
open sandwich
with shrimp, egg
and vegetables
(695 ISK); the
flagship course,
meatballs in
brown sauce
with potatoes
and lingonberry
jam (895 ISK);
and for dessert,
cream puffs with
(more!) cream
and vanilla sauce
(395).
To start with, all
the courses were
well-presented
and looked
good (except
perhaps the
meatballs, which
were carelessly
spooned onto
the plate despite
the manager’s order to make the plate
look particularly pretty).
I’m a big fan of open shrimp sandwiches,
which are the relatives of the bread
cakes I grew up with, which also origi-
nate from Scandinavia (smörgåstarta).
This is a slice of bread with salad, topped
with eggs, mayonnaise, shrimps and
vegetables for decoration. Very pretty.
However, the bread by itself tasted
rather stale, having stood in a cool-
ing shelf probably since the morning.
Also, it was rather difficult to get a bite
with everything mixed, so it was either
a bite of dry bread with a bit of salad
or a mouthful of eggs, shrimps and
mayonnaise. It should have been more
equally distributed over the bread. The
imported shrimps by themselves were
also rather flavourless but once you man-
aged to get a good bite with everything,
it was decent. Worst of all was suddenly
crunching your teeth on a bit of eggshell.
Unacceptable! However, the manager
quickly reassured me that this was no
fault of the company’s but the supplier
who peels the eggs for them.
For a main course, I had the traditional
Swedish (although Icelandic-made).
This is ok if you’re a hungry overworked,
underpaid parent with three hyperactive
kids. But the brown sauce didn’t quite
match up to the delicious brown sauce
that comes with 1944 meatballs (1944
is an Icelandic microwave food brand),
and the lingonberry jam was definitely
not a favourite of mine with its weird
sour taste—I would have much preferred
some authentic sweet Icelandic rhubarb
jam. But I’ll write it up as a cultural dif-
ference this time.
Swedes are nuts about balls and IKEA
has every type of them: meatballs, fish-
balls, vegetable balls and even dessert
cream balls, although those are more
correctly referred to as cream puffs in
English. Those were adorably presented
and it almost seemed a shame to dig in.
However, these had also been stored on
the cooling shelves where customers can
easily grab them, and they were starting
to harden at the top. The cream puffs
were accompanied by a strange kind
of whipped cream—which I seriously
doubt is real cream but rather some arti-
ficial cream substitute—and vanilla sauce
with hardly any vanilla taste.
All in all, it was an ok meal which I
would describe as industrialised mommy
food, great for those with little money/
time/refined sense of taste. However, it is
to be noted that I only had standardised
courses from the main menu. The meal
of the month often seems more interest-
ing. Also, there are free sauces! All the
cocktail sauce you want! Big plus there.
- Ragna Ó. Guðmundsdóttir
SHARE: gpv.is/eatkea
IKEA Restaurant
Kauptún 4
210 Garðabær
Phone: 520 2500
ikea.is
Mon-Sun:
9:30 am – 8:30 pm
What we think
Solid everyday food
for busy people or
people with nothing
to do
Flavour
I honestly cannot
think of a better
word than “ok.”
Ambiance
Corporate lunch-
room-like (but with
noisy kids)
Service
Self-service (except
the hot food is put
on a plate for you)
Price for 2 (no
drinks)
What makes it worth
it (i.e. cheap!).
Iceland’s Most
Popular Restaurant