So I was raised by a mother who is not exactly the greatest cook in the world, sorry mom, but in most cases she would be right there with you admitting it. However there are a few items that she is skilled at making, and one of those would be Swedish Meatballs. Considering that she is ½ Swedish it is a good thing that she can at least represent our cultural heritage in the kitchen at least once a year. I will be the first to admit that Swedish food tends to err on the side of gross, items like pickled herring and blood soup make my stomach turn at the thought, but they do know how to make a good salmon and of course the famous balls of goodness known as Swedish Meatballs.
That is why my next foodventure was a risky gamble of being written out of the will if it ended up being stellar, let’s be honest it could very well lead to me being written out of her will if I say that Ikea makes a better meatball dish than her. That’s right, I said Ikea, the massive Swedish furniture store famous for cheap build it yourself particle board furniture, and perhaps less famous for the cafeteria style restaurant that hides in their monster stores.
The set up is simple in the Ikea restaurant, operating in a bare bones kind of set up in order to keep their meals cheaper (you can get most meals for around $2.99+). You also get some nice table side reading suggesting which furniture pieces you are dining on so that you can buy them yourself if you find your rear end so pleased by your seat. Basically they have no issue shamelessly dangling their products in front of your face while you eat, like these happy lanterns.
For my meal I decided to go big, I upgraded from 10 mini meatballs to 15, which come with a small side salad, mashed potatoes, plenty of gravy, and a dollop of lingonberry jelly. Basically a very filling meal for around $5.99 can’t beat that.
To get in the Swedish mood I opted for a glass of lingonberry juice, it was very similar to cranberry juice, a tart sweet juice that went quite well with the rest of the meal.
The meatballs themselves were actually good, I was expecting low quality crappy food and actually found them to have good flavor. The gravy was pretty damn good as well, I am a gravy junky and tend to be a little picky over my gravy, but this brown gravy was good and rich complementing the meatballs and potatoes. Heck even the potatoes were actually good; they were creamy but still lumpy, giving them the feel of homemade mashed potatoes. The salad was the weak point, it was a self serve buffet set up and basically was like a wilted salad in a bag so my recommendation is to just skip it and focus on what they do right.
The real added twist was the jam, mixing the flavors with the gravy meat was a party in my mouth. Sure that may sound gross but it wasn’t and if you disagree than quite frankly I will not be buying you a fancy meal at Ikea any time soon.
Then there was one, next thing I know my meatballs have all disappeared, probably stolen by those brats running around but alas what can I do. Now in terms of will this lead to me being written out of the will? No! They were good, the gravy was awesome (we only get gravy once in a while if my mom would choose to make it with the drippings but usually they are eaten dry) so that was an added perk, but Jill’s meatballs are still reigning supreme. Now Christmas just needs to show up so I can get more of these little balls of happiness.
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