Cloudy With a Chance of Ikea Meatballs | Eater
"The restaurant’s $5.99 KÖTTBULLAR plate is a dependable piece of cafeteria comfort: allspice-laced meatballs that are juicy if oddly uniform, served in a thick, buttery cream gravy with lingonberry preserves to cut the richness. Beyond the food itself—where frozen bags, gravy packets, and jars of preserves are sold for home consumption—the dining area is intentionally designed as an emotionally safe hub, with long communal tables, private booths, a visible play area, and floor-to-ceiling windows, positioned between the staged showroom and the marketplace to encourage lingering and decision-making. The chain leans into a curated Swedishness (blue-and-yellow branding, heavily umlauted product names, and a marketplace stocked with cloudberry jam and preserved herring) and has turned the meatball into a cultural touchstone—selling roughly 110 million annually and drawing many customers who come only to eat—sometimes serving as a small, reliable consolation during major life transitions. While the food can be almost ritualistically consumed in moments of fatigue or melancholy, it remains a simple, effective comfort-food offering that embodies the larger, carefully crafted lifestyle fantasy on display throughout the store." - Anna Roth
