Ikea - Thurrock

I suspect the food is a loss leader, i.e. they sell a cheap breakfast to get shoppers into the store who then stay on and buy household goods. The food is good and follow the Ikea pattern, if you buy a bacon roll you get a roll with bacon on the side and you have to assemble it. Not somewhere to visit for a feed but if you plan to shop there arrive early and eating is probably easier and cheaper than eating at home.

There are alot of families that visit the cafe and often with young children. This can create mess that doesn't seem to ne cleaned up by the staff often. Tables and chairs are dirty and covered in leftover food or sauces. Overall the experience is good with a wide range of foods and veggie or vegan alternatives. Today I enjoyed a slice of vegan chocolate cake and a cup of coffee. While the cake and coffee were great, I was disappointed that there were no alternative milks which would've been a welcome addition None the less, a pleasant place for lunch or a drink and a snack mid-shop in IKEA

Went to Ikea Lakeside on 13th August 2021. Our first stop was the resturant. There were 2 queues. Unfortunately we made the wrong choice by opting for the one that was the slowest and had 1 member of staff unlike the other queue that had three. We did not realise this until 10 minutes in. Eventually we waited 30 minutes to be served. In the meanwhile, I had the misfortune to watch someone in the kitchen dividing the apple slice desserts with their bare hands. They were picking up the slices and breaking them apart and putting them onto plates. Their mask was only partially covering their mouth. It was an unhygienic sight. I asked to see the manager to ask that another member of staff was put on the counter and to ask about their food safety standards this as 20 minutes into the waiting time. I was told that the manager, Roxanne, was having lunch and would be back in 45 minutes. In the meanwhile, there were four members of staff at the back of the kitchen who all came out to see who wanted to see the manager. Surely one of those members of staff could have assisted the woman on the counter! By the time I was served I had lost enthusiasm and unfortunately the person serving me did not know the difference between the vegetable balls and the plant based balls. It was also her job to hand out cultery which either she forgot to do as was in my case and many others or she had to go to the other counter to stock up on forks or knives etc. This all occured at the height of the lunch rush hour. We started queing at around 12.30 p.m. When I eventually spoke with Roxanne who seemed like a very young woman who lacked the experience of customer care, she did not appear particularly concerned about the wait time and initially offered the excuse of being short staffed until it was pointed out the counter ratio. Overall very poor customer care and the food was warm. We are living in testing times and to see someone handle food like that was disgusting and for there not to be mangerial oversight of a busy kitchen in the height of rush hour was shocking! Customer care 0/10. Food 1/10. Food hygiene 0/10.

We went today and we were really excited (it's the closest thing I can get to the Nordics what with Covid), we arrived and it was abit confusing to book in, they said there were no tables only at 10.38am but I can book a table for 10.30am (which we did), the woman and man were lovely..we queued up, not much social distancing but everyone in masks, we noticed alot of food was missing which maybe due to Covid, we ordered the food and I asked for a veggie with no beans or mushrooms, the woman slaps on the beans and the mushrooms which I had to tell the other woman I can not eat it, I am allgeric to chilly which is in alot of baked beans, she was very sorry, there was no replacements though and I paid full price, there was no toast either so I literally had veggie sausage, one tomato, two hash browns, omelette but ok, that's fine. We sat down to eat, I liked how they had the plastic between tables, I prefer that, makes it more private. The food, well, my son barely ate anything, he disliked it very much, my husband was so so and for me, the sausages were very burnt, omelette was cold and my hash brown were uncooked in the middle! Unfortunately it seems the sausage may have some sort of chilly in possibly because I have had a reaction to something in the food but can not find the ingredients online. At the end of shopping we went to the little takeaway bit at the end, the man was lovely, woman, not so much, food was terrible and noone wanted the lemonade, noone liked it. I guess you can not moan as its cheap but omg I wouldn't recommend or ever eat there again. Abit disappointing when you drive 45 minutes to get breakfast there to and its just utterly terrible lol!!

We arrived after queuing for about 30 minutes Outside, when we asked about the restaurant we were given a dining slot, in which you have an hour to eat...sounds ok ‍ We went to the restaurant at our allotted time..to join another queue, seated after 10 minutes, then sent one member to order..and waited 35 minutes for it to arrive, semi cold and lacking condiments, the fish tasted old and mushy, the coffee tasted ‘burnt’..very very disappointing, no one to speak to concerning the food and everyone is very distant and no really wanting you to be there..we won’t be returning, my suggestion ..don’t bother!