Name: US vs UK Ikea | Food Wars | Insider Food
Uploaded: 2025-05-23T07:07:19.000Z
Duration: 28 min 6 s
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From exclusive items to portion sizes, we wanted to find out all the differences between IKEA food in the U.S. and the U.K.

Quick note, it turns out IKEA does not offer a take-out option, but fortunately they do sell lots of Tupperware containers, so in case you're wondering why the food looks a little bit sad, it's because we had to improvise.

Let's start portion sizes with IKEA's claim to fame when it comes to food, the Swedish meatballs.

In the U.S., IKEA's restaurants offer only one portion size for meatballs, eight pieces.

But, after that, you can get them in increments of four, for instance, twelve meatballs.

In the U.K., IKEA's iconic meatballs come in two portion sizes, eight or twelve.

You can also add four extra meatballs to any order for an extra £1.75, and there's seemingly no limit to how many times you can do this.

In the U.K., the meatballs come with either mashed potatoes or chips on the side, as well as some garden peas, lingonberry jam, and of course, their famous gravy.

And of course, the meatball options all come with a side of mashed potatoes and peas.

Let's get a load of that, also a little bit of cranberry sauce.

We're going to weigh eight meatballs in both countries to see whose meatballs are bigger.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Now, I do feel like the stats might be skewed slightly because there's some peas embedded in this.

We got way more mash than the U.K., like almost double.

IKEA also offers vegetarian and vegan versions of its meatballs right here.

Neither were bad, and if I was a vegetarian or vegan, I would be perfectly happy with those plant-based.

Tasted perfectly fine, but the difference is noticeable.

We share a couple of dessert options with the U.S., notably the dime cake.

Over here, we call that the caramel almond cake.

Another dessert option we share with the U.K. is a soft serve ice cream, which you get in vanilla or strawberry.

Okay, first of all, the gentleman who worked there was adamant that it's actually frozen yogurt.

Regardless, they didn't have to-go cups like Harry was able to get, so all they would give us is like the small cup where it's kind of poking out, like it's ready to eat.

There's absolutely no way that was making it from Ikea to the car, let alone the studio.

So, here's footage of me enjoying it in the lobby of Ikea.

We have soft serve ice cream in the U.K. too, either as vanilla or vanilla with chocolate sauce.

Impressively, they've given us exactly 100 grams of soft serve ice cream.

In the U.K., you can get either a classic hot dog or a veggie hot dog from the bistro stand.

We're going to measure and weigh the classic hot dog to compare with the U.S.

The hot dog in the U.K. is seven inches in length, and with the toppings of pickles and onions, it weighs 114 grams.

Our hot dog is five and a quarter inches long, and our hot dog weighs 75 grams.

Here's all the food you'll find at a U.S.

This single piece of chicken is the Havana chicken.

It comes with plantains, rice, and beans, which we'll see in a little bit.

But, just isolated the chicken, and it's been sitting for a minute, sorry.

Yeah, I'm definitely getting some spices in here.

Not just like a standard piece of chicken.

We'll start down this end with some main courses.

We have two different non-meat meatball options in the U.K.

These are meatballs which are formed of ground up vegetables, and they're also served with a vegetable couscous as well.

But, for vegetarians who prefer something a bit more reminiscent of meat, they also have plant balls.

Now, I'm kind of intrigued by these because they look really good.

These are a fake meat version of Ikea's classic meatballs.

Now, compared to a classic meatball, they're actually like almost more visually appealing, I would say.

They look like they've, you know, been cooked in a similar way.

Maybe even kind of like fried or cooked for longer than you would expect from these.

I will say, the plant-based one doesn't have that distinct Ikea meatball taste to it.

I think texture-wise, it's like almost identical to the classic meatball.

You can also get a salmon filet with pea pesto, vegetable, medallions, and a corn medley, which you can see right here.

Before you go furniture shopping, you can also get the garlic lemon cod, with, of course, mashed potatoes and peas.

Actually, that's a pretty good piece of fish.

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US vs UK Ikea | Food Wars | Insider Food

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