IKEA

A pretty bog standard Ikea just off the motorway by Leeds — a place to spend time where minutes becomes hours and hours become days — you never get out as quickly as you think you will!
But I really like what Ikea does and I love their design ethic in terms of value to high end, most stuff is usually pretty cool and as long as you don’t do an Edward Norton in Fight Club and you have the whole apartment decked out page to page then it’s all good.
I’ve gotta say though that I find the food in the café becoming a bit too Anglicised/​Americanised with less Swedish influence than it used to have. I had to really search for the gravlax and the daim bar cake seems to be getting poorer in quality. Saying that it’s not biggie but I hope they do stick to their food values and always sell their Swedish wares!

I honestly like Ikea and I particularly like the restaurant and I love meatballs (but enough of that).
There is no doubt that Ikea has some very appealing items and, generally speaking, the prices are OK but I so hate the layout and the way I am herded along the pre-​determined route to make sure I see absolutely everything.
The one thing I hated even more than the layout today was the checkout. I only had one item but, because I was paying cash, I had to queue for a ‘manned’ till behind about 7 people who had obviously chosen today to refurnish their entire house with Ikea goods. I could only gaze longingly at the express checkouts which are all card only

Came to IKEA on Saturday. As we parked the car they was 2. Electricity pumps where you can recharge your electric car fantastic idea. But went into the IKEA café and had 2 main meals 2 desserts and 2 drinks and it was £18 I thought that was just a little bit expensive for IKEA.

I go to this Ikea about once a month and I love the things they sell as they’re cheap and stylish. Also love the food in the café. The only thing I don’t like about this shop is the poor customer service and rude staff. I’ve never come accross any nice staff there!

I think they are installing a conveyor belt for the zombies to step on. If you just go where ever you want it is quite easy to push the zombies out the way. Furniture is cheap and function. Kids like the restaurant.

Personally never been a great fan of Ikea products, but our team has purchased several items for the office they are not that bad and seem to be durable enough for the job. The only awkward job is putting the items together as the majority of the furniture comes flat packed.
The EducateFirst Team

With Ikea, once you’ve been you know exactly what you’re getting yourself in for every time you go back. Some people take the mick because you have a home furnished with Ikea pieces, but I would certainly put up with the mocking if it meant I could have affordable bits and bobs to make my pad more comfortable for me, myself and I.
Having said that, I have only ever been in two stores, and I must say I prefer the Ashton store to the Birstall one.
In this store it seems they are struggling for the space to effectively display everything they want you to see. I struggled on a few occasions to find the prices of certain items, and struggled to find any more information about the lovely little lone festival chair I spotted, including whether there were any available for me to snaffle.
Just as well really, I’m sure I saved myself a few bob.

Ikea has a reputation for cheap and cheerful offerings. With regard to their breakfasts, only one of these objectives is true. At 99p for six items I think you can probably guess which one. If you have an Ikea family card then coffee is free, which is a good job as you wouldn’t want to pay for it; it’s bland and watery. The breakfast is pretty much the same; bacon, sausage and tomato all have no taste, the only saving grace is the beans which weren’t too bad and could be scooped up with the other items to lend some flavour. If you only have 99p for breakfast then it won’t kill you.

I’m coming out in cold sweats. Maybe it was that neat meths chaser I had last night or perhaps it’s the thought of Ikea on a Saturday. I think it’s the latter.
Now don’t get me wrong, Ikea is a great store. What’s not to love? You’ve got funky and affordable furniture and accessories and a touch of mad Swedish invention thrown in for good measure. Whether you are a student or a new home owner, it’s easy to see why people flock from afar to do up their pads. Unfortunately, that is the problem though. Too many people and shopping rage.
I always think Ikea is a great idea and it is. What isn’t a good idea is going on a Saturday though. It gets stupidly busy and by the end of it I’ve lost the will to live. You’ve also got to find your wanted purchases after trekking the equivalent of the London Marathon at the end and then queue up for the pleasure of parting with your cash.
Another black mark for me is the café. We got there at about 3pm to find no fruit, limited choices and basically it’s meat balls or nothing. I’ve heard the meat balls are stuff of legend but anything that looks that bad surely can’t taste good.
The winner is the food bit at the end and the take out hot dog stand though. We’re talking big whoppers here and with change from a few quid. Then you can get some fine chocolate and obscure drinks. You see I’m easily appeased.
Great for what it is but plan your shopping mission carefully or you may never come out alive

The amount of people who haven’t been to an Ikea is slowly but surely dwindling, this was my first Ikea, up until Ashton Under Lyne opened there wasn’t an Ikea near Manchester, so visiting what they call the Leeds branch was truly exciting. Driving up to the enormous blue corrugated box that is Ikea, I remember feeling slightly giddy.
You have to love Ikea, even if you hate it, and that’s for the ingenuity of how Ikea is laid out, like the most perfect of mazes; once you have started to process you must continue to the very end, there’s no exit or free reign to wander around or, yanno, leave? but you must follow the path chosen for you untill you’ve taken a full route of what Ikea has to offer you. Clever idea, but incredibly annoying if you want to get away quick sharp.
Ikea is like an Argos you can walk through, with really everything you could possibly want to imagine being there, somewhere. Stumbling through zones, you can’t help but get sucked into something as you make your way around, be it bedroom furniture, office furniture, kitchen stuff, stuff to decorate the living room with, a new sofa, some bedding, oh a large rug, wait how about some lighting, oh but we could do with a new bookshelf, and if we get a new bookshelf what about a coffee table, oh I could do with a new wardrobe, and yes I could do with a new bed, oh well if we’re going all out I’ll get a new desk, oh and some funky chair to match, well we can’t do the bedroom and the study without doing the kitchen, oh new cutlery, hmm sod it lets get new kitchen kit, and a shower curtain, and some scales, oh and a bathroom mirror, let’s get a cupboard, and so on and so forth it goes on, until you’ve got more things in your trolley you ever thought would fit.
The bad side to ordering things from Ikea, you pretty much have to take everything home with you in some flat packed version or such, and if you’ve got a van with you, that’s fine, but if you’re trying to get a new bookshelf in a corsa, you’ve got issues, seriously not cool.
There are plenty of things here to grab everyone’s attention in some form or another, and whilst it is losing it’s appeal in becoming trendy and thus a tad overpriced, there’s always a cuddly toy with a ridiculous name that warms my heart, that and the chocolate sold here in the mini market area upon exit of Ikea.

Ikea can feel a bit like torture if you visit on one of it’s busy periods — even finding a parking space can be a bit of a chore, and then you have to contend with the crowds and the winding path around the store which seems to go on forever until you reach the checkouts.
However, Ikea stocks a massive range of products and at very reasonable prices, which is why those throngs of people visit in the first place! If you time your visit when the store is quieter then it is much less frustrating.
There is also a great café/​restaurant in the store which is very reasonably priced and has veggie options as well as the traditional Swedish meatballs!
The only downside is reaching the checkouts then realising you’ve forgotten something and having to retrace your steps to find the offending item!

If I didn’t live just down the road from Ikea, I don’t think I’d ever go. As it is, I nip up and stay if it looks quiet enough to bother with.
The layout of this Ikea is ridiculous, unless you know where you are. It basically goes around in a spiral, but this means that if you want the toilet halfway round, you have to go right back to the door (unless you know about the doors which go through the middle of the departments).
Ikeas in general are annoying because they don’t always have the item you’re looking for, and it’s usually hard to find a member of staff, so it’s hard to blame this particular store for that shortcoming.
it does have an amazing bargain area, it always has lots of different things to choose from. The Swedish shop is also the only place I’ve ever found non-​alcoholic cider of any kind, and it’s pear flavoured.

I am never a big fan of Ikea, they are way too busy and you have to take a route round the entire shop to get around it. Hot Dogs and Meatballs are good though. They are good value for money if your can manage the mayhem, try and avoid bank holidays as they are the worst for over crowding.
Worth a look online first before you go, so that you know what you are aiming to get before entering the maze.

What’s the best thing about IKEA? Easy, the vegetarian hotdogs! Lovely veggie junk food goodness, lots of mild swedish mustard and a deliciously doughy unhealthy white roll. Mmm-​mm, I would trek out to IKEA just for this!
What’s the second best thing about IKEA? Easy-​peasy — the economy packs of Dime bars! Crunchy delicious rock-​hard toffee coated in thick milk chocolate — you can feel your teeth rotting as you chew! Ooh, I want one right now.
What’s the third best thing about IKEA? Easier and easier — the big rolls of brown paper, fantastic for Ebay packaging, way cheaper than bubble wrap or postal mailers.
See, I just found three fantastic things about IKEA — and I haven’t even got on to their lovely furniture yet. Can you do it too?

We have only ever visited this Ikea store depsite being shoppaholics due to its sheer craziness of layout and shopping procedures!
Found the café and very good value for money breakfast at £1.49 but that was about it. There were a few bits we liked for our daughter’s room but it is not cleear how you purchase/​order items, the staff were all busy with customers plus a lengthy queue so we didn’t order or buy anything and spent the rest of the hour and a half working out how to get out!
Might be worth a visit online next time!

Ikea is always busy, it’s a fab shop but we all know about it. The best time to go is late in the day, or around tea time during the week, if you only want to pick up a couple of bits.
We went this weekend to buy wardrobes, arrived when the shop opened. The assistants weren’t busy so we were seen straight away but they couldn’t access the design studio as the computers hadn’t been booted up yet. Very helpful though. Went through to get our purchase organised with home delivery and as we were so early they had slots for that afternoon — which was a bonus! Wardrobes arrived Saturday late afternoon and it was well worth the £40 delivery fee.
Also bought our kitchen units there last year, very professional service, with good advice. Our kitchen is excellent and when we get bored, we can quickly give it a face lift with new cupboard fronts from Ikea, brilliant.

Big, impersonal and a nightmare to navigate round, just like every ikea. If you do it backwards though it make sense and you can spot all the shortcuts. Parking can be horrendous as can actually getting into the carpark.
The hotdogs are good and very reasonable, and drinks are well priced. An ikea family card entitles you to free tea and coffee through the week. Check their website for details.

I LOVE this place though I have to agree the road layout is crackers, even my TomTom can’t work out which lane you’re meant to be in, but as a bonus there is loads of free parking once you do get there. The restaurant is my favourite bit, we always stop for meatballs, chips, peas and gravy (and a strawberry shortcake, dime cake and 2 drinks!)
The furniture ranges from bog standard cheap stuff to some well made more expensive stuff, our wardrobe wasn’t the cheapest at £280 but 3 years on it is as sturdy and modern as the day we bought it and of course we have the matching drawers which is good.
I love IKEA and it’s the first place we pop to if we need some cheap furniture!

so you fancy going on a scary ride on fast roads! this is the place to aim for, the road lay out to this place, if you have never been is, well confusing and scary!
but the rewards are fab, when you eventually find your way in!
has crèche facilities, though there canbe a wait to leave your kids, and its a return in an hour to claim them back!
the store is amazing! hugh and a domestic on every aisle! which is good to watch? not nasty domestics, just funny little jokey one’s. kids getting bored, into mischief, getting told off etc
the lay out from entrance to tills is in a circular pattern, so you dont have to retrace your footsteps etc, to see everything!
the canteen stlye restaurant, always serves good, tasty foods, the meat balls and gravey is always nice, though there a tad tight on the gravey! good prices and portions are fair for what you pay. but please tidy up your table when you have finished!
the restaurant gets busy, to very busy!
as you near the tills there is a bargain corner, good for work tops, incomplete flat packs and discontinued/​damaged/​dirty stock.
this is where i picked up them dam bee’s, every visit, there be a little grubby looking bee in the bagain corner for a fiver, we have 4, would have more but they stopped making them, much to partners relief!
so when you’ve paid at the tills, there is like a little fast food counter, with hotdogs, corn on cobs, drinks and again really low prices and tasty, though the self serve sauce pumps can run out.
the little food court is also worth a visit, full of sweets, chocolate, spirits, cakes and some herrings in jars, cheese, cheese in a tube etc
on the whole, its a great place to go for everything you will ever need for your house, and somethings you’ve never needed but suddenly need!

I LOVE IKEA. I have been there about fifteen times this year. I should very much like to hide in one of the pretend house bits near the front at closing time and then spend the night frolicking amongst the furnishings, eating Daim bars and meatballs as I go