Review: Ikea Restaurant, The Curve

The pain of starting from scratch is not as much as the pain of losing everything in the first place. But, these are the sacrifices we must make for the better things in life though one may argue, is it really better? Guess we'll just have to find out.

Some people get annoyed when I whip out my lash camera during meal times. I try to take the pictures as quick as possible but it usually ends up being worse that it'll take longer to retake them. tk was telling me to stop taking pictures of the same places T_T But, they haven't been featured here before.... You know how there are two kinds of people in the world; pressure cooker & slow cooker? I fall under the latter. Heck, if I was trying to do a number two in the loo and someone starts to queue outside, my shit would decide to become the hardest, slowest moving turd ever in (my) history that I'd just give up entirely so that the next person could use the toilet. Happens when I try to pee too. Is it just me?

Anyway, lets not disgust you any further with my toilet tales though I've spent some memorable ones on the throne.

One thing about Ikea is this place is packed during the weekends and school holiday. It gets so crowded until you can't find a place to sit. Best to avoid the usual lunch/dinner hours. The joys of not working and having someone who isn't working too ^_^

There are days when I eat so much because I feel like it. Those days are most likely hormone fueled and it means eat everything in sight, much to my stomach's chagrin. However, this turned out to be a pleasant surprise. For starters, it didn't taste like it came out of a can. There were bits of actual mushroom floating about. It isn't too rich or thick with cream, just the right amount without the guilt afterwards.

If only the same could be said of love.

His meatballs. Lol. His meatballs, if you get what I mean.
They haven't changed much and if not for the gravy, I wouldn't order it anymore. The meat is a bit dry and at times, it's hard to discern if it's actual minced meat or everything else that may be meat but isn't.

Cold smoked salmon. My first time trying it and turned out to be a good one. Love the taste of the salmon. It's good that they didn't slice the salmon too thick or thin. Just enough to taste it . The accompanying sweet mustard sauce worked well , great if you don't like the fishy taste, not that there was any. Give the lemon a squeeze over for that citrus kick.

Given it's limited menu, it isn't too difficult to try all the items on it but lets face it, half (if not all) the times that you're here, your order would be the meatballs. That night, I decided to be a bit adventurous and ventured into unknown territory. No, I didn't try anal.

Instead, I ordered Ikea's poached salmon in lemon butter gravy. While I no longer like raw salmon i.e. sashimi, I didn't give up the cooked version. Not just yet.
Although the gravy did an excellent job of masking the fishy taste, it didn't quite hold the components of the dish together. Almost disjointed, if you may. The steamed broccoli seemed out of place. Lets not even get started with the potatoes. I love them as much as I love eggs (and that is a very high accolade) but the earthy flavors of it didn't work with the salmon or the gravy. Quite a letdown. The fish itself was cooked well but that's about it.

 Roast chicken with Swedish herb and lemon sauce. While the chicken was cooked just right, the accompanying gravy was peculiar, to say the least. The citrus kick didn't quite work well with the slightly sweet sauce. It paired just right with the chicken so as not to overwhelm the meat but I think some may not like this combination at all.

The carrot and mashed potato certainly didn't work with the gravy. At all. But I'd order it again for the chicken.

Chicken wings. Like who orders chicken wings in Ikea? Apparently my lunch date does.
These are different from the usual Chinese open air stall version that tend to be juicy and oily. These were more crunchy and dry. The marinade was good though.