IKEA Restaurant — Restaurant in Renton

3.75 stars. For 'fast' food that has actual nutrition and genuine taste. Ikea's restaurant has been better. Gone are the princess cake and several other Scandinavian desserts. Cake slices are often of the US/Canada variety now, including overpriced Cakerie strawberry 'short'cake found for less in most Seattle-area supermarkets and a good but not unique chocolate cake.

The soups are fine and the entrées and apps are increasingly plant-oriented, which is great. And tasty, if a tad bland, seasoning-wise. And healthful. However, items are often served lukewarm (especially the Swedish balls).

I recently bought the frozen veggie balls downstairs in the marketplace and cooked them up at home and they were SO MUCH better. My vegetarian gravy is much better, too ;-) Ikea needs to step it up to get back their cafés wow factor. As the food bar has risen with the millennium, Ikea has fallen behind, execution-wise.

Also, IKEA doubts that they are going to a more Earth friendly, more plant-based menu, they might want to make sure that they have a plant-based Creamer for the coffee as well. half-and-half is hardly doing anything for the environment. to the contrary. There are no vegan creamer/milk options at the time.

I'm rounding up to 4 stars because I cannot give 3.75 and I think there are little better than 3.5. And, just on the face of it, as a pseudo fast-food place, I appreciate the majority healthy options and the 'interesting' factor of their food. However, ikea needs to evolve with the times and step up their execution for more flavor, more variety and what dhould be an ever-increasing Scandinavian vibe. They're falling behind at this point. Still, for the money,...

We come here often enough and the experience always varies. Last night still isn't sitting well with me. The food is always good and warm, a nice selection when things aren't sold out, but I'm not picky and will take whatever. The customer service is always on the irritable side from them having to repeat themselves over and over. Things are sold out and people can't hear them, so it's a rinse and repeat of "what would you like for your side? we're out of mashed potatoes," "oh, mashed potatoes please 😁," "....we are OUT of mashed potatoes. 😑" I feel bad for the food court employees because lots of customers aren't very understanding/forgiving. The only sour feeling from last night was the cashier who snapped at me because I didn't position my phone properly to be scanned for the Ikea family thing. I apologized and they rolled their eyes, and grumbled my total. We went to find a seat and when I went back over to get condiments and silverware, I looked up briefly and was greeted by a scowl and another rolling of the eyes from the same cashier at a distance. I understand that food service is not a fun job customer service wise, I work retail, it's similar but more forgiving. However, it is well known that you save your frustrations for a customer that deserves to be snipped at.

TL;DR: good food, hit or miss service, be kind to those in...

Came on a weekday afternoon to grab a quick meal and the employee behind the counter was so rude, I think she gave her two weeks notice and just working her last days there because how else would you explain her unnecessary rudeness?

I just wanted 4 meatballs and mushed potato, thats it. The first girl said "it'll be a kids meal then". I said ok, I never get kid meals so I don't know what's included. She passes the plate to the next girl (the rude one) and she looks at me as I am her worst enemy with a spoon full of peas and says "peas?". I say "no, thanks" and look up at the menu to see what other option I can substitute peas for and I hear "what do you want then?" in a pugnacious tone. I hope her next place of work is going to be a night shift at a gas station in a low income area; she'll fit right in with her...