October 5, 2007
by Karen Persson of The Columbian

IKEA’s restaurant is famous for its Swedish meatballs, right, with cream sauce, red potatoes and lingonberry jam. But the restaurant has other offerings worth sampling, such as the salmon with red potatoes, vegetables and butter chive sauce. (JANET L. MATHEWS/The Columbian)

Why: As long as it takes to make your way through IKEA's enormous showrooms, you're bound to be hungry by the time you're through. If you feel the line is too long in IKEA's upstairs restaurant, you could stop at the bistro downstairs on your way out.

Backstory: Ingvar Kamprad was 17 years old when he founded IKEA in Agunnaryd, Sweden. Portland's store, one of 165 held by The IKEA Group in 22 countries, opened in July. The restaurant and bistro are an important component of each store, providing customers with a place to eat and relax while shopping.

Atmosphere: The restaurant is set up as a cafeteria with plenty of room for long lines. Cold items and the soup-and-salad bar are help-yourself. Hot meal choices are doled out in portions by kitchen servers. The restaurant exemplifies IKEA's buzzword "functional" with handy food-tray carts, plentiful simple seating and customer clean-up stations where diners are encouraged to slide their trays into one of the towers before they leave. The downstairs bistro, near the exit, offers counter service.

The food: I ventured beyond the Swedish meatballs, IKEA's most popular menu item, and instead sampled the poached salmon, which comes with vegetables and two red potatoes.

The vegetables were a bit too soft for my liking, but the potatoes had a pleasant and not-too-dry texture. A small cup of ranch dressing can be obtained at the soda fountain/condiment station and makes a good accompaniment.

The salmon was good, but the yellow sauce that topped it became less appetizing as it cooled and thickened.

I also sampled the macaroni and cheese, which I especially liked. It's baked with a rich cheesy sauce that imparts more than just one familiar cheese flavor, similar to a chowder or fondue.

For dessert, my favorite sampling was the chocolate toffee Diam torte. It reminded me of a Heath bar in reverse - more chocolate than toffee - with a light cake biscuit incorporated into it. The bistro's menu consists of cinnamon buns, frozen yogurt cones and hot dogs.

Best deal: Up until 11 a.m., the restaurant offers a 99-cent breakfast of eggs, bacon and potatoes. At the bistro, $2.50 will buy you two all-beef hot dogs, a bag of chips and a fountain drink. Kids' meals are just 99 cents to $1.99.

Cost: Swedish meatballs are $4.29 for 10, up to $5.99 for 20 and come with cream sauce, lingonberries and potatoes. Herb poached salmon is $5.99, a chicken Caesar salad is $4.99, and graved lox with greens is $4.99. The soup and salad are $1.79 each. Sandwiches cost $2.99 to $3.49.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Breakfast daily until 11 a.m.

Where: 10280 N.E. Cascades Parkway, Portland.

Contact: 503-282-4532.