Portland's New Ikea

So the fiancee, myself, and her mother went to Portland's new Ikea last night. As an Ikea fan, I was eager to check it out. I work in the local media, and we went bonkers when this thing opened up. So it was good to finally get down there. I had only been to the one in the Seattle area before, and this one is tons better.

First, getting in is kind of a bitch. You have to loop way around to get there. But that's probably a good thing considering the store's proximity to the airport. When you finally get inside, it's pretty agreeable. This story (which I'm told is the biggest Ikea in the U.S.) is two stories, so you get your cart and head straight upstairs. The displays seem just like any other Ikea stores, except there's a lot more room. So we never felt like we were getting elbowed out, which was nice.

Halfway through we hit up the famous Ikea cafe. I had an incredibly disappointing ham and swiss baguette. I wanted a crunchy fresh baguette, but instead it was like a hotdog bun. The meatballs were great, as usual. We split a fantastic apple cake, which was basically a pile of cinnamon apples on a crust.

Then, back to shopping, we found a couple of cool little things we can use now (like a four-pronged swivel towel rack), and got lots of ideas for when we get our own place after the wedding. Plus, no lines when we checked out!

Overall, I'd give the Ikea a high score of 18 meatballs with a side of lingon berries.