Ikea Orlando's Julbord Holiday Buffet

I was invited to visit IKEA and try their Julbord Holiday Buffet. According to IKEA's website, Julbord is a classic Christmas dinner in Scandinavian countries. The word “Julbord” is made up of two parts: “Jul,” meaning Yule (synonymous with Christmas) and “Bord,” meaning table. 

The all-you-can-eat smörgåsbord happened in the Orlando IKEA on December 11, 2015 in their restaurant. The center of the restaurant was transformed into an abundant spread of delicious foods.

There was assorted breads and crackers.

Cheese:

IKEA served some of their standards including their meatballs.

Mashed potatoes:

Prinskorv sausages were new to me. According to Wikipedia, the name translates to prince sausages.

Red Cabbage:

There was a huge spread of crawfish to choose from.

I really like IKEA's Red Beet Salad. I first tried this at another IKEA media event last year. It was delicious this time around too.

Swedish Potato Salad:

Hard Boiled Eggs:

This was a type of potato casserole. This was interesting by having a sweet aftertaste.

Gravad lax is one of my favorite foods from IKEA. I helped myself to far too much of this delicious cured salmon.

Christmas Ham:

IKEA served lots of assorted desserts, including cakes, cookies, rice pudding, and chocolates.

Glögg:

With that overview of the Julbord Holiday buffet, here's my two plates of delicious foods. Plate #1 was loaded up with crawfish, salmon, cucumber salad, meatballs, sausage, carrots, and mashed potatoes.

Plate #2 had ham, gravad lax, assorted salads, cheese, and the potato casserole.

I really enjoyed trying the Julbord Holiday Buffet. I had tried going here a few years ago but ended up trying to get my tickets too late and it was sold out. For future reference, buy your tickets early! I'm glad I finally had the chance to visit this year and sample all the delicious Swedish Christmas foods!

#WrappedInIKEA Foods

Do most people go to IKEA for Swedish food rather than actually shopping for furniture? Perhaps that's me. I was recently invited to taste some of the foods from IKEA's JULBORD party menu as well as hear about other happenings in the Orlando store.

The JULBORD Dinner is what will most likely be of interest to readers of this blog. It is an all you can eat meal of Swedish holiday foods and happens on Friday, December 12. Julbord has two seatings, one from 2-4:30pm an the other from 6-8:30pm. Here's a sample of the menu:

The first thing I tried was the Red Beet Salad. It had nice hints of dill and onion.

Assorted Cheeses were next:

Crawfish Salad, complete with a whole crawfish on the side:

Meatballs and Lingonberries:

Gravad Lax with Mustard Sauce:

Desserts:

Glogg with Almonds and Raisins:

IKEA has also given you all a chance to win free stuff. Enter below for a chance to win a $100 IKEA gift card. You may enter from November 17 – November 30th. IKEA will pick a winner on Monday, December 1st, and contact them via Twitter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ikea in Sunrise, FL

 What visit to Ikea is complete without buying some sort of food? On this visit to the Ikea in Sunrise, I had the Swedish Meatball Combo, served with the standard mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce. This came with a side salad and fountain drink (lingonberry soda, of course).

Free IKEA Breakfast

Every so often, the IKEA store in Orlando puts advertisements in the mail or newspaper for a free weekend breakfast at their restaurant. On one of these occasions, I decided to go get my free breakfast. It consisted of a plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and a cup of coffee. They advertised bacon as part of their free breakfasts, but apparently that wasn't happening on the day I visited.

Little did I know, free IKEA breakfasts are nothing new. They actually give out free breakfast Monday thru Friday and normally charge on weekends. Perhaps a visit during the week would come with bacon.

On the way out of the store, I stopped off and ate one of IKEA's cinnamon rolls. No complaints here.

More Ikea Pasta

I ate the same pasta from Ikea in Orlando once again. It seems I've been going there often lately to get their cheap food.

Speaking of Ikea, check out this new store in Brooklyn, NY. It's built on the site of an old shipyard. Instead of getting rid of the shipping stuff, they kept lots of it. They have huge shipping cranes in the store's parking lot!

Very cool!
Ikea in Brooklyn

Ikea Orlando Pasta

I ate at the restaurant in Ikea once again. I ate the same thing that I ordered last time too. I had pasta with alfredo sauce, topped with steamed vegetables. This came with a side salad and garlic bread. It was pretty good for $3.99, but I sort of realized that their food has declined over the years since I first ate in an Ikea up on Long Island several years ago where I was amazed with their good cheap food. It seems like their food has become more American and less Swedish. They definitely didn't have chicken tenders back then...

Pasta from Ikea

On the way home from Universal, I stopped at Ikea to eat dinner. I had a vegetable pasta combo. It included a salad, pasta topped with vegetables and alfredo sauce, and garlic bread, all for $3.99. It tasted good too!

Speaking of Ikea food, check out this blog. They have a really interesting post about what Ikea stores serve in their restaurants around the world. France and Norway look like they serve some good food!

IKEA Chicken & Salmon Pilaf

I ate lunch at the IKEA near the Millenia Mall in Orlando, FL. I ate the chicken and salmon pilaf with a cup of lingonberry juice. The pilaf was very good with the chicken and salmon mixed with rice and lentils. It had a nice flavor of citrus and dill mixed in with the meal. I liked it better than the meatballs that I had here last time...

IKEA Meatballs

I ate at the restaurant in the IKEA in Orlando, Florida. IKEA has the best food out of any eating area in any store. Where else can you get Swedish food in the same place that you can buy a couch?

After looking at the pre-made food in the cases for a while, like this Gravad Lax (next time) and all of the desserts, I ended up sharing a plate of Swedish Meatballs, served with mashed potatoes and some lingonberry jam.



The meatballs were okay, but it was the gravy on top that made them worth eating. I wouldn't think that parsley and lingonberries makes a good combination though.