IKEA

This IKEA isn’t the biggest one I’ve been in. It also isn’t the best. The café at the end of the showroom has no windows, so it provides a pretty depressing experience. I don’t know if it’s a Gateshead thing but they put some sort of herb on my meatballs when I asked for plain. When I first came in, I thought that it was all one floor and there was no restaurant. Usually there is a staircase as soon as you enter IKEA, but here you get to the end of the showroom and there is an escalator going upstairs to the market hall, which I find really confusing. Once you get to the end of the market, there are 2 flat escalators going down to the very low ceilinged warehouse. Also you aren’t allowed to bring heavy trolleys onto the travellator so you have to wait about 3000 years for the lift to come. The warehouse has no signage and we had to ask an employee which way the exit was. At the exit, I got an ice cream which I had to wait about 60 years for. I don’t really recommend this IKEA. You should go to the ones at Edinburgh and Glasgow which are excellent.

No. Just no. awful shopping experience. products ok I suppose and Staff deserve sympathy. have been twice and never again will be far too soon.

love ikea but could get lost in there for hours and the food is always cold

I admit it I am an Ikea addict! As awful as it is I just love to take a day trip over to Gateshead to do a bit of shopping here. I love everything about Ikea, the find your own stuff in the warehouse part to the little pencils they give you to write down which things you want to buy.
I also love the prices, nowhere over where I live can you get things for the home so cheaply. We are about to go over next weekend as I really need new wardrobes but can only afford them from Ikea as everything is so much more expensive in our only other option of Argos.
I don’t like that you have to pay so much for the delivery though so we will be going in my friend’s van.
I also really like the 30p hotdogs at the end and the only way I can get my Dad to go is if we promise he can have one when we have finished shopping.
I love the Christmas decorations and the rugs, and you can’t go wrong with the plants either.

I find this place hell, for a girl that loves to shop this place is torment. It is a long hard slog through a shop full of kitsch items that are supposed to be designer of the moment items but some just look trashy. You will walk around a maze of items set up to look good but you just end up thinking who would live in this. Bright and bold designs for people who like that which used to be cheap but now appear to be overpriced. They do have the occasional thing made of real wood without a high price tag in a nice design but it is either cheap and tacky or bold and overpriced. The café is okay and they do hotdogs and coke for cheap next to a little supermarket. You write down the number of what you want if its of any size and drag your trolley along to the aisle to try and find it and then try and keep your trolley from crashing into everyone. The staff seem to be okay but I have never had to have them do anything over than scan the stuff as I push it past them.

Try to avoid weekends when it seems walking slowly around Ikea has become a national habit. Because I live close by I can pop in on weekday evenings and then it is a pleasure — easy to park, no queues in the restaurant and a manageable number of people. If you have the Ikea family card as well as free tea and coffee you can get discount on certain dishes — for instance this week it was £1 off a chicken kebab and couscous and veg mix with a sauce which was delicious. To be more environmentally friendly they have cut down on the packaging and bags available. You can buy your own blue bags to take stuff home, but it’s also worthwhile remembering to take your own for smaller purchases. The food shop at the end has some very nice cheese and also good value frozen fish, including salmon.

I dislike the way this store has become a marathon event. The way in which it is designed to make you pass everything means that it is always a long hike — even if you just want a couple of things.
The staff in the crèche were described by my children as ‘wierd’. They certainly did seem very loud and abrupt.

One of my favourite places in the world. This one is huge with two floors and more cool stuff than you could ever wish for. There is a huge café in the middle as well as the traditional hotdog café at the end.
The layout is a bit silly and gets annoying when you only want one specific thing.
But overall a great store

Ikea is a day out — a bit of a hike, but you soon learn the shortcuts and the promise of meatballs and chocolate mousse halfway round is a great incentive.
They offer good value furniture with a modern twist but is also very reasonable for the basics.
We swear by the large poly zip bags to store practically anything in dust and moisture free and now in a number of shapes and sizes.
Join the Ikea family before you go and you can get a free cuppa to revive you (Mon –Fri) along with various offers they send you and also instore.
My son used to love the indoor play area but sadly hes too old /​tall now but still asks to go for the soft toys and the treats in the restaurant — always good value for money — we never use the café just the main restaurant as the boys are meat eaters.
Theres free refills on soft drinks /​coffee etc and a good range for vegetarians too.
There is a shop selling swedish produce after you go through the tills — I heartily recoment the Glug Wine and the frozen mash (I know but it is so quick and tasty), they also now do a frozen meatball & mash meal to take home for only £1.40.
Next to the shop is a bistro selling hot dogs, ice cream and drinks — all very good quality and very cheap.

I used to love Ikea but it’s just too big now and if I’m after something specific I just can’t be bothered to have to go all around the store for just one thing. Being one way, you don’t have a choice but to go all around and it’s a real marathon. I do have bedroom furniture from here and it’s worn well and I do love the design, but i do think that some of the designs are a bit over the top. Candles are always the best value here and I do like the market-​place where they sell kitchenware. I also find plants from here are realy cheap, very fresh and worth a visit if you need them.

I like this store the only thing is, it has recently been renovated and i personally dont know which way to go and end up loosing the people i am with. It has really good items for the home from beds and sofas to toiletries. Very cheap kitchens although i am aware that the delivery prices are expensive depending on how far away from the store you live. There are a couple of cafes available in the middle of the store, this gives you abit of a break, it is really cheap and if you pick a family card up in the store and show it when you get a cuppa, it is free!!! There is also a bargain corner where items are reduced down, i picked a rug up for a fiver!!! Worth a visit, even if its just to have a nose about.

Big store, nice, tidy and great design but like maze took more than hours to go outside or go to ikea café but do not worry have shortcut door go to outside. I love go there. Ikea like my house lol so homey. I buy toilet or bath rug cost me just £ 1 and many bargain items. They have café, cheap and nice. If you join ikea card already (just take view minute to put your detail on the box) at the time, if your visit between Monday until Friday so you entitle got Free Coffee or Tea anytime as much as you can too. If you use credit or debit card for payment, they charge you 75p per transaction.

ive only been to this ikea once and once was enough, until the next season anyway! i loved the kids bedroom lights beds covers and just funky stuff you can fill a room with. but i agree with the other review i dont like the one way system at all. This was the 1^st time i had been to an ikea and i had no idea of the layout i missed the ‘shortcuts’ which wernt that short i had to walk around heavily pregnant about everything i didnt want to see to get to the small area i was interested in, i dont like the idea that the food and drink supplies were after the tills i could have done with a café half way round! The travelaters made me dizzy and went slower than me walking around so even though i had walked and wanted a break i found myself walking still to get to a point where i could sit down faster. Having said all that i bought one lovely nightlight for the kids room which still works a year on so it must have been worth it (!)

I used to be fond of this place and would give it 4 stars if I hadn’t discovered punk shui. Brace yourself for a biased review
Last time I shopped here I bought some long candles which were fairly cheap and plain, just what I was after. During my visit I stopped by the café and had a coffee and a brownie. Big mistake. The coffee was sickeningly flat and the brownie was foul. On the café wall there is a very cool picture of a hotel which is made out of ice and everything is of course from the store. The café is a great place to talk over what you intend to buy and to argue about which colour curtains go with the door handles etc. If you’re on a budget and need furniture fast then you can get good package deals. These package deals are for people who want modern and reliable, colour co-​ordinated and cheap aswell as trendy. I’m guilty of having bought a fair few items from here. People have pointed out that they know more than one person who owns the same Ikea item as me and this makes me feel like a dull consumer. On the other hand, Ikea is a shop where the masses flock to because it is full of the latest ‘in’ styles created by Scandinavian designers. The layout of the store could have been designed better in my opinion. The entrance is miles from the checkout and the one way system is bit silly. A disaster on busy days. The displays are eye catching. Bottles of water are sold at the end (after the check-​outs) to quench your thirst after walking for miles. Plenty of free mini Ikea pencils and tape measures are dotted about around the store.