My First Actual IKEA Philippines Visit – Pros & Cons

IKEA Philippines has been open for more than a year, but it was my first time to visit last week.

I have ordered items online from them a few times but was always too lazy to actually visit the store since it is so far away. I live in Manila, close to Quezon City, and going all the way to Ikea in Mall of Asia has become too long a drive.

Years before, I didn’t mind going to MOA so much, but with the Skyway construction going on along Quirino Ave in Paco and the associated detours that Waze takes me on to avoid the traffic, what was once a simple route has become much too complicated involving countless back streets of San Andres and Malate and seems to take a much longer time.

But last weekend, my sister was going to order something from Ikea and asked me if I wanted to add anything to the order, and I thought, well, why not just go myself? I’d finally be able to see the things I wanted to buy in person, I can take my time browsing. Sis didn’t want to go because it’s way too far and she has better things to do in life daw, LOL.

So I made the effort to go.

Checking Waze, it ended up being 12km (that’s just one way!).

Parking at Ikea Pasay

Parking is available at Ikea. It was packed but there were still some available parking spots. If you are planning to buy things at Ikea, I highly recommend just parking at Ikea instead of parking at MOA and having to walk all the way lugging your shopping back to the car. You can’t take the shopping carts out.

Parking fee is P50 for the first 3 hours and P10 per succeeding hour.

Since I had a meal there and I am a slow shopper who likes to take my time perusing everything, I ended up spending hours inside Ikea for a total of P90 parking fee.

DON’T FORGET that you need to pay your parking fee at the parking counter before going to your car. They don’t have cashiers at the parking exit.

Eat First, Shop Later

First order of the visit was to eat.

The restaurant was at the 4th Floor, and they do recommend starting from the top floor and work your way down.

The Swedish restaurant was something I haven’t seen before. Other Ikeas I’ve been to only had small dining areas. Nothing like this. This was like a big, big food court but the ambience was like an airport cafeteria or lounge.

You get a cart/tray, fall in line and pick your food cafeteria style, and pay at the cashier. I like this because you can get more food and don’t need to worry about spilling your food if you trip or bump into something.

Next is a beverage station where you can get your juice or coffee and utensils.

The other customers were also nice, polite and cleared their tables. There are signs asking customers to put their used plates etc in a specific area.

The food was okay. I mean, it is pleasant to eat, I wouldn’t mind eating it again but it’s not something I’ll make that long drive for.

Price is P180 for 8 meatballs, a scoop of mashed potatoes, some broccoli and jam. Lasagna was P195. Carrot cake was P110.

Oh, make sure you get an Ikea Family membership because you get FREE COFFEE + free refills! 🙂 Just show your Ikea Family membership to the cashier.

The Ikea Family membership is free. I just registered online last year.

Water is also available for free in the drinking stations. They have plastic Kalas cups you can use for water.

Shopping

I’m not going to go through each section since that would be too much! I’ll just go through what I liked and what I didn’t.

Kitchen Ware

I spent the most time in the kitchen ware area.

I have actually purchased Ikea plates and glasses online before and was pretty happy with them. Now I spent this time looking at the plates I wasn’t sure about.

I like the Fargklar plates. Not all of them, but most of the Fargklar designs are good and basic. I have several Fargklar plates already, so I just looked at the sizes I didn’t have but wanted.

I was looking at the Fargklar 10″ glossy cream color dinner plates, but I thought the similar Famco plates I already have looked much better (and were feldspar porcelain instead of Fargklar’s stoneware).

I do love my glossy turquoise Fargklar plates though! I switch them with the cream Famco plates. Darker colored food – use cream Famco plates. Lighter colored food, like cream pastas, scrambled eggs, lasagna, etc… look better in the turquoise Fargklar plates.

I also got a white plastic dish rack, it was only P250. Bottom tray not included. At first, I thought it would be fine without any bottom tray, but the water just pools on the counter. Fortunately, we had an old plastic tray that fit so we just used that. The Ikea dish rack itself is good for P250 – the plastic is not flimsy and so far, I haven’t seen any mold or anything growing on it (well, it’s only been a week).

The Ikea 365+ plates and bowls were something I was interested in when browsing online, but seeing them in person, I realized that they were cool-toned white and not even very white, kinda grayish. I’m glad I didn’t buy them online because I didn’t like the color in person.

I like the Gladelig designs and I just realized I missed seeing the little Gladelig sauce plate. This is the plate they use at Italianni’s for the olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip. I’ve been eyeing it for some time so I immediately noticed it when I had dinner with friends at Italianni’s recently – aha! Italianni’s is using the Gladelig! Now that I remember, I’ve added it to my online cart for next time.

The Oftast plates and bowls were ALL ON SALE FOR P40! These are similar to the opalware in SM department stores. Looks very similar to the white Luminarcs, but way lighter and thinner. I put some in my cart but I realized that I only wanted to buy them because they were on sale and not because they “sparked joy” so I put them back.

I was eyeing the pink? red? orange? 35 cl Pokal glass that was P90 each. It would look nice for a summer party! I didn’t put it in my cart yet because I was looking for a bigger glass. Our current Vardagen glasses are 43 cl so I think 35 cl might hold too little water. I was planning to go back for it if I didn’t find a bigger size or if I found it in a set but totally forgot because it was closing time and I had to rush to get through the other sections of Ikea.

Originally, I was going to get these bamboo lids (2 for P110), but put them back when I came across the white silicone one (see below), because the silicone lid would be able to fit more glass sizes.

One thing I was really happy to find was this Smulfare silicone lid (P100)! Thank goodness they had it in white!

It can create a vacuum seal with your glass, and it can fit a variety of glass sizes. Yes, it is kinda expensive at P100 for a cover, but it is a one-time purchase and I can see myself using this for a long, long time.

While I have a water flask, sometimes I bring a glass of water to the bedroom and don’t finish drinking it before I get sleepy. If I forget to cover it, the water would of course, be kind of weird to drink in the morning. Sometimes it takes on the smell of the air freshener / humidifier scent. I used to cover it with whatever I saw on hand – like a piece of paper or whatever. So unsanitary, haha! Now I have a real cover!

I bought it with this big glass mug (P150).

Speaking of covers, I also bought some glass containers and lids. The covers of the food containers we have for the past few years eventually wear out (Lock & Lock, Biokips, etc…) – the clamps would break off, or the rubber gasket would break or get moldy, etc… We would sometimes end up with the glass bodies but no more matching lids. It’s the same for Pyrex food containers – the plastic lids always crack.

Unfortunately, the lids are not easy to find. The sellers don’t sell lids only, at least not in SM. I’ve heard that for some brands, you can contact them directly to see if they’ll sell you only the lid but I haven’t tried it because it sounds like too much hassle.

So when I saw similar glass food containers in Ikea, I got a few. The glass body and the lids are sold separately. You can choose whatever kind of lid you want – the classic plastic one, a bamboo one, or a glass one.

Finally, no need to worry about lids! Buying replacement lids is easy and straightforward, no need to contact the manufacturer/distributor directly to inquire. This was the main selling point of these Ikea containers for me.

Other good points for the Ikea plastic lid:

• the rubber thing is EASY to take out – I only needed to use my finger to pull it out. No tools like knives or toothpicks necessary. I think this will greatly reduce the likelihood of the rubber getting damaged.
• The groove where the rubber gasket is in is easier to clean – it is wider and shallower – this makes it easier to brush with a cleaning toothbrush.

The only negative thing about it is that the color of the rubber gasket is dark blue. This makes it difficult to see if any mold has grown on it. I hope they come out with white rubber gaskets in the future.

A 1000ml size shallow GLASS rectangular food container with plastic lid comes out to only P290 for the set (the glass body is P170, the plastic lid is P120). This is a whole lot less expensive than other brands.

Add: Went to SM Sta Mesa last weekend and took the opportunity to check prices of glass food containers. The area previously allotted to food containers had moved and shrunk to only one shelf, and some popular brands had pulled out and were not available anymore. The closest sizes I could find to the Ikea 1000ml one were P700-1000 in price.

According to Ikea, the glass is: Microwave-safe. Freezer-safe. Dishwasher-safe. Oven-safe.

Another reason I chose the plastic Ikea cover is because I tried the bamboo one in store and it was very, very tight! I had expected it to be a bit loose, but it was vacuum-tight and frankly difficult to open. I imagine if it contained food with sauce that I would have spilled all the sauce trying to open the bamboo lid. The bamboo lid is also expensive — MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE than the glass body! The bamboo lid was P250 while the glass body (1000ml) was only P170. The plastic lid is P120.

The square 600ml one is P100 for the glass body and P100 for the plastic lid, for a total of P200.

I haven’t used our new Ikea ones yet because our old Lock & Lock ones are still okay, but I have the Ikea ones as backup in case any of our current ones break.

P.S. The Ikea lids will not fit the glass bodies of other brands. I tried it and it doesn’t fit.

Here’s a side by side comparison of the square ones.

I also bought more of the Korken glass jars. I love these and I think we have around 20 of them now. The price actually increased. The 500ml jar was only P90 last year but now it’s P120. The 1-liter I think was P120 last year, it’s now P150.

I like these Korken jars because the kind of seal it uses keeps food really fresh for longer. The mouths for all these different sizes are the same (except for the smallest size) so if you need to replace the rubber, one size fits all, and Ikea sells the rubber gasket (5pcs for P100 P120 now, price increase again!). The rubber gaskets dry and crack over time and need to be replaced.

I have the same problem with my other glass jars (other brands) – if the plastic seal thing breaks there’s no replacement. With these Ikea ones, the rubber gaskets are easily available.

Aside from the usual pantry staples, I also use these jars to store snacks. For example, we get a big pack of trail mix from S&R, of course we can’t finish it all in one sitting! So I divide the big pack of trail mix into 3 or 4 containers. And then we only eat from one container first – in case we still can’t finish it, there’s no need to force ourselves to, because we just need to close the jar and it’s “sealed” again and will not go stale quickly. In the past we’d always think, “Oh, we need to finish this entire pack because it might go stale”. Not anymore!

Also works for chicharon, cornick, etc..! It will keep chicharon crispy and fresh for longer than just tying the chicharon plastic bag with a rubber band.

I was also tempted to buy the Ikea spice jars, soy sauce dispenser and oil & vinegar cruet sets, but noticed that the soy sauce dispenser and the cruet sets openings didn’t have any cover. They were just open holes and exposed. The cheapie P5.00 dispenser spout from Shopee I currently use at least has a cover, which I think is more sanitary.

I like the spice jars but I’m still on the fence about them. I prefer a white top instead of the black they have, it looks bigger than the regular spice bottles but also bulkier, and we usually get free spice bottles when we buy McCormick spices because very often, McCormick spice refill pouches are not available at the supermarket, and only the bottled ones are available.

Pots and pans

These were mostly misses. The quality of the cheaper Ikea pots & pans were not good at all – parang lata. Very light, thin metal material. Handles were black plastic (they tend to melt and loosen over time). The more expensive ones were better, but for the money, I think the “good brand” ones at SM are better quality and more value for money.

I did like the Ikea colander – it’s very pretty and sturdy! But we already have quite a few stainless steel colanders at home and I was worried that the enamel on the Ikea colander would chip eventually.

Another item I liked was the steamer insert. I have a bigger version of this that I got from Ikea HK a few years ago and I love using it, like it can fit a big fish and even a 9″ pie plate and a big leche flan llanera. Unfortunately, they don’t offer the big size anymore and only have this smaller one, 23cm. It can probably fit 1 medium tilapia, but not a really large tilapia or pampano. I was sorely tempted to get two to stack on top of each other, The P40 8″ Oftast deep plate fits inside for steaming, but in reality it’s just too small if I’m making food for our household and I’d have to steam 2 batches – and it’s just like, twice the cleaning work, when I already have the bigger one that fits everything in one batch. Even if I liked it, it just wasn’t feasible for us. Maybe if you’re only making a meal for 1-2 pax the size would be okay. The quality is good though, and I’ve had mine for around 5 years or longer.

Furniture

Honestly, I was a bit let down by the furniture. Almost a decade ago when makeup gurus were a big thing on YouTube and almost all of them had the Malm table, it became something I wanted to have.

So of course, I checked out the Malm furniture now that I was in Ikea.

But the Malm was actually just particle board material (not real wood as in real wood) that was covered in plastic/acrylic wrapper.

And the most disappointing part were the bottoms of the drawers – these were just cardboard! What if you stored some liquid thing there (toner, etc…) and it leaked? Seriously, you cannot put anything heavy in it.

Hahaha, is my age showing? I’m just used to furniture made of real wood. Even our old cheap MDF furniture, I remember, had drawer bottoms that were also made of the same material & thickness MDF. But the Malms I saw literally had cardboard as the drawer bottoms. I really did not expect that at these prices.

At those prices, one could hire a carpenter and have a cabinet custom-made, and it would be better because you’d be using real wood. Even plywood will last longer than particle board. And with the humid climate in the Philippines, particle board often tends to mold and fall apart.

This just makes me appreciate our real wood furniture from my grandparents’ and my parents’ era more. Those things were really made to last.

This isn’t to say we don’t have cheap particle board furniture – we have a few, like shoe cabinets and things like that. But they were cheap and I don’t expect them to last for more than a few years. But for “main” furniture like beds, tables, cabinets, I still think real wood is more durable.

However, I did like the metal furniture at Ikea. I’ve already blogged about the Ikea Lerberg shelf we bought here. The other metal shelves I saw at Ikea were the same quality and they are real metal. Our Lerberg shelves are still doing great more than 1 year later – no rust, chips, deforming or anything so far considering we have 4 cats and one of the shelves is used to hold 6 bags of cat litter with no problem.

Anyway, if you are planning to buy furniture at Ikea, I think it’s best that you see it in person first.

I passed by some candles and bought some because they smelled nice.

Checking Out

I spent way too much time browsing Ikea that I was surprised when I heard the announcement that they were closing in 30 minutes!

I haven’t even finished the kitchen section yet!

So I tried to browse as much as I could in the remaining time before finally arriving at the counter.

When I got to the counter, the cashier asked for my Ikea Family membership number, then asked if I wanted to buy the Ikea shopping bag for P50, or if I brought my own eco bags. Fortunately I did bring my own eco bags, and thankfully I had returned items earlier so what I bought fit into my 2 large eco bags. If I hadn’t returned the items I was unsure about, I would have been in trouble! I don’t think they do the “carton” thing here, unlike in SM or Puregold where the baggers would use makeshift cartons to pack your groceries.

But the thing was, the cashier just scanned my items, pushed them to the end of the counter and then bahala na ako sa buhay ko to pack my own items. No offer to put my items in my eco bag, nothing. But my items were mostly breakables, so I asked if they had some wrapper for the breakables. They just pointed me to the wrapping station near the escalators.

Shopping in the Philippines all my life where department store and supermarket staff, and literally all other shops, always pack things for us, I am not used to this. It just felt so cold, like literally bahala ka na sa buhay mo, wrap your own shit. That’s the vibe I got. I am aware that this is probably how they do things now but it’s not an experience I like nor am I used to. It’s been a long time (pre-pandemic) but I don’t recall Ikea HK being this way.

So I made my way to the wrapping station where there was one roll of brown paper per table. I looked at the other customers and we were all awkwardly trying to get some paper and wrap our purchases, looking at each other like wtf. So yeah, I wasn’t the only one scratching my head about this. Masyado naman nila dinibdib pagiging DIY (they’re taking DIY to the max) hahaha.

Personally, I don’t think this is very efficient. If a bagger packed it, things would have been finished quickly. What happened was it took longer because many customers (probably first timers like me) lingered longer trying to figure out what they were supposed to do now, and kept asking the staff questions like “where do I get paper to wrap my glass items?” Even I just stood there waiting, thinking, “wait, do they expect me to pack this myself?” Then waiting again, unsure. Then finally asking. Then awkwardly getting my items.

If you order online, you don’t have to go through this. Your purchases arrive properly packed and you don’t have to feel weirded out as a customer.

I was telling my sister about this and she was laughing at me, saying that’s what I get for insisting on personally going to Ikea and saying that I really should have just ordered online, LOL.

Other Tips:

• Bring a tape measure so you can measure items to see if they will fit what you need
• Bring your own eco bags

Thrown a bit off kilter by the Ikea checkout, I totally forgot that I had to pay the parking ticket first. Good thing a nice guard saw me as I was walking towards my car and reminded me.

I really hate this “pay parking ticket at the counter” system (no cashier at exit) because I always forget and it’s such a hassle and quite traumatic. I remember the parking places that do this and if I had a choice I would choose to go somewhere else.

Will I Visit Ikea in Person Again?

I’m sure I will if I had a compelling reason to go, but it’s not going to be very often. If I only need to buy items that I am already sure about and don’t need to see said items in person, I will just order online.

First of all, it is cheaper to just order online. Paying a P170 flat shipping fee is better than spending the gas for 24 kms, plus parking fee of P90. Not to mention my time and effort. Plus, I don’t have to pack my own stuff (see Checking Out above).

I arrived home well past midnight, even if Ikea closes at 10pm, because I failed to buy pasalubong take home food for sis from Ikea 😀 Since I spent way too much time shopping, the Ikea restaurants were closed so I wasn’t able to buy food for takeout. So I spent the drive home looking for places where I could buy good takeout food, hahaha.

Overall, ordering online is much more convenient!

If you are a slow and thorough shopper like me, maybe make one trip and allot A LOT of time to familiarize yourself with all the products. As it is, I didn’t have enough time to see everything. I will probably make another trip to Ikea after some time just because I really did not see everything thoroughly. But I have familiarized myself enough with most of the products I am interested in to be able to just order them online.