Ikea has opened its first high-street restaurant in the UK. There’s not a flat-pack in sight – but a hotdog is 85p and a children’s pasta dish with tomato sauce (plus soft drink and piece of fruit) is 95p. A nine-piece full English will set you back £3.75, while a serving of their famous meatballs (with mash, peas, cream sauce and lingonberry jam) is £5.50. Vegetarians are amply catered for. It’s open 12 hours a day (and that may be extended further to enable dinner). There’s free wifi and somewhere to charge your phone. Even better, there is no music.
It’s not pretending to be anything it isn’t. And in an age where even the supermarket sandwich tries to pose as something you’d find in an upmarket Italian deli, a lack of pretension is a commendable thing
This is all in central London – west London (Hammersmith) no less. Where else can you eat at these prices? Maybe the Tesco café, though it isn’t quite that cheap.
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