Swedish Bite, Ikea Chester

THEIR meatballs are as famous as their flatpack furniture, with a meal in one of its restaurants often the highlight of any Ikea trip.

- MARK WILLIAMS

A new smaller Ikea store opened its doors in early October and is located just over the Welsh border at Chester's Greyhound Retail Park.

The smaller stores have been developed to be significantly faster and more cost-effective to open than their traditional large Ikea stores.

Customers queued with much excitement to catch a glimpse of the furniture, homewares and, of course, partake in the ritual of sampling their famous Ikea meatballs.

The Swedish Bite, the Chester store's new cafe, is located on the second floor of the unit, somewhere between the 'Bedroom' and 'Children's' sections.

I say somewhere, as it's not easy finding the cafe through its maze of colourful sofas and flatpacked furniture. You will more likely smell the food before you see their welcoming bright yellow and blue cafe signs.

There were only two self-service ordering screens to the side of the food counter, which put us under a great deal of pressure, as people queued impatiently behind us.

We later saw a QR code on the table, which may have been a more relaxed way of ordering your Swedish scran.

There was a serving station next to the counter to the left side of the cafe, near to the entrance, as well as a fridge with cold drinks.

The cafe is more compact than your traditional Ikea food hall, but there's still plenty of space and it also benefits from the natural light which floods in through the large windows.

Visitors can get cold plates and starters, including a pasta salad, new to the Ikea menu, which comes with cherry tomatoes pesto, spinach and rocket for £2.95.