When news broke that a batch of IKEA's famous Swedish meatballs in the Czech Republic were found to contain horse meat, reactions ranged from disgust to shock — and even, from someone in our office, to surprise that IKEA serves food at all. (To these people we say: How have you managed to resist?)
Luckily for American fans of the absurdly cheap meatballs and lingonberry sauce, IKEA quickly released a statement that no horse meat had been used in their food in the U.S.
While we are solidly in the camp that 15 meatballs are worth the $3.99, we wanted to know: Do you prefer IKEA's food over the furniture?
Sena Yang, 28, had just eaten a plate of meatballs at the store's Brooklyn, N.Y. outpost when TODAY.com caught up with her and asked how she felt about the controversy. "What?" she asked, not yet having heard the news. "Um, I hope that's not true."
After being reassured that the horse meat hadn't actually made its way to the U.S., Yang seemed relieved.
"They're always really good," she said. "They even sprinkled a little parsley on top. I was like, that's really fancy."
At IKEA today running errands, Yang and her sister didn't think twice before stopping into the cafeteria, which is one of their favorite rituals. "Every time I come to IKEA we always know we should stop in and have the meatballs, and some of that gravy, and the carrots — and the lingonberry sauce. It's always something we look forward to," she said. "IKEA takes a lot of you."
And while the news made Yang a little wary of eating the meatballs in the future, she's not likely to stop eating the food at IKEA anytime soon. "I mean, obviously it's too late now because I've already consumed them, but maybe next time I'll do a little research and dig around before thinking about the meatballs," Yang said. "Next time I'll get something like the cinnamon rolls because you can't really stick horse meat in cinnamon rolls."
Are you an IKEA snack-attacker? Tell us in the comments!
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