The Major City Where You'll Find The World's Only Standalone IKEA Restaurant

IKEA is first and foremost a furniture emporium, although the Swedish meatballs in its food court are nearly as iconic as its furniture's complicated assembly instructions (IKEA released a meatball assembly guide as a joking mixture of both). It's common to see both a fast food bistro and a full restaurant inside its stores, because IKEA offers food to make you buy more household goods as part of its strategy. Until the past couple of years though, the company has never attempted to open a separate, standalone restaurant. Now, IKEA's testing the concept.

There's currently one IKEA restaurant unconnected to a furniture store (although it's not far from one). If you live near the capital of the United Kingdom, the world's only separate IKEA restaurant is located in the Hammersmith borough of West London. Launched in late 2024, the IKEA restaurant took over a former Wasabi restaurant space, offering seating in the fairly cozy eatery to about 75 people. That said, it still managed to sell over 2,000 meatballs during its grand opening. Located just next door to a small IKEA furniture store, there's likely some expectation that you'll still pop inside for a peek at the household goods. However, in Hammersmith, it's no longer necessary to hike through the seemingly infinite aisles of sofas, carpets, and dishware to get yourself a few Swedish meatballs.

IKEA's Hammersmith restaurant menu doesn't seem especially different from its regular in-store food courts, but it does offer both its restaurant and bistro menus alongside café-style options. This includes eight-piece orders of those famous IKEA Swedish meatballs and IKEA plant-based Swedish meatballs, which debuted back in 2020 — both come with cream sauce and a side of lingonberry jam, mashed potatoes, and peas. You can also find the usual pasta with tomato sauce, seafood dishes like fish and chips, and breakfast platters with hash browns, omelettes, and sausage. Hot dogs and desserts also appear to be available; IKEA's hot dogs may not have the same following as Costco dogs, but priced at roughly a dollar or less, they're certainly cheap.

Will there be more standalone IKEA restaurants in the future, maybe even in North America? It certainly seems like IKEA is interested. Since 2017, the company has been toying with the idea of opening separate restaurants, banking on its meatballs alone as a big enough draw to support a business. Reportedly, a space for another standalone restaurant is being eyed in Chantilly, Virginia, at the Dulles Expo Center, and IKEA has already filed some permits for it. Once that opens, it would be about twice the size of its Hammersmith location, potentially paving the way for more Swedish meatball restaurants in the future.