IKEA Restaurant & Cafe (Tampines)

This is a place to grab a quick bite and off you go shopping for household items. Do not expect it to be like a restaurant. No ambience whatsoever. No waiters or waitresses to serve you food. It is self service and more like a Canteen to me!

Maybe they should name it IKEA Staff and Visitors Canteen!

Since the place is so crowded on weekends, you will find people standing next to your table waiting for you to vacate your seats. "Hey, I still have 5 meatballs left on my plate. If I take 1 minute to eat one, it will be 5 minutes waiting time." Very much reminds me of the hawker centre. But do not book seats with tissue paper here. It gets easily blown away by the large and bulky items that people carry.

So why come all the way to Tampines to eat in this cafe? The only good reason is the shopping at IKEA and the Swedish meatballs and 3 star chicken wings. Of course if you are an IKEA member, you will get your drinks free.

Also you are encouraged to clean up your meals after finishing them. There is a counter in the centre of the "canteen" where you can deposit your dishes.

So if this is you first experience to this Cafe, perhaps it will be your last. Unless you are really famished! Always remember to take your meals before you head down to IKEA. We ate once at Alexandra and once in Tampines - that's it. If you want ambience, you will find a noisy one here. Anyway, when you step into IKEA to do your shopping, the unpleasant experience you find in the Cafe will soon be forgotten....until you step back into it again.

For me IKEA is a great place to find furniture and household accessories (Full Stop).