Pinecresting for an Ikea Restaurant

Today we ventured over to Ikea (2685 Iris Street, Ottawa) to do some hmming and hawing over some new furniture.  We arrived at 9:30

First we discovered the new Ikea Family Card that allows for discounts on food (i.e. free coffee or tea!) and furniture.  We signed up online last night and obtained our card today in a matter of seconds at the automatic kiosk via scanning the bar code provided. 

We then mosied upstairs to the restaurant for our the breakfast offerings at the Ikea Restaurant.  We grabbed our trays and moved along the cafeteria style line for our food.

The Order: 2 Breakfast Combos (Scrambled eggs, 2 sausages and home fries), 1 Large Cinnamon Bun, 3 Pieces of Bacon, 1 Coffee and 1 Green Tea.

All of the above was only $5.08 including $0.59 tax.  This is because 30 minutes before store opening there is free coffee and tea for all customers (Note: All day Free Coffee & Tea as well for Ikea Family Card holders).  As well, the 2 breakfast combos were only $1.00 each plus tax.  Pretty good value pricing for a breakfast meal. 

After paying the cashier, we gathered our drinks from the drink station and then retraced our steps back to the cashier station to pick up our cutlery.  

The only issue with this self serve style is the confusion it creates in finding where you need to go.  When waiting in line at the cashier, there were two families of four trying to figure out where the start of the entire process was.  A little encouragement towards the start and they found their way.  Then there was trying to gather our utensils, that we missed and got to the drink station.

A simple suggestion to resolve this issue would be to number each of the spots of the restaurants.  This would resolve a lot of the confusion as customers would only have to visit #1, #2, etc. For example, picking up your tray would be "Start Here #1" and then move through the organized line to gather you food.  2 Cashier would be next, cutlery 3, drinks 4 and so on.  This would make it easier to have customers get from start to finish in a expedient way without the frustration of missing a step and having to backpedal. 

We found a clean table and dug into our meals.  The food overall was medium warm in temperature.  If this was a diner, I would have sent it back for being lackluster in temperature.  The scrambled eggs were the worst, it seemed they had been warmed an hour ago and left to cool since then.  The sausages and bacon were medium room temperature.  But for the price of the food, it was still good value. 

The coffee was decent quality but probably the warmest thing there.  Coming from a Bunn-O-Matic machine, keeping the coffee warm and great tasting was probably the simplest thing the Ikea Restaurant did. 

Overall, the Ikea Restaurant is a satisfactory only.  For the pricing available, one should not expect high quality pancakes, waffles and such topped with whipped cream and fruit.  The total aim of the Ikea Restaurant is to provide decent food with a great price before and after a shopping trip to Ikea.