IKEA: The New St. Louis Store

My friend Nina visited an IKEA store in Chicago a few months ago and raved about it. She loved the food, the candy, the store itself, the reasonable prices, and the fact that they have free childcare. Yes, you read that correctly. FREE childcare! They watch your children in a large "play-area" so you can go shop! 

Well, after hearing all of her reviews we found out that St. Louis was building an IKEA store! Needless to say, opening week I had to go and check it out! 

Going on opening week may have not been the best idea I have ever had. Impatience kicks Kung-booty sometimes. The store was pretty chaotic, the dining area was super packed, and lines were really long. Even despite all of this though, IKEA is a pretty awesome place!

Our journey started by walking through those big doors and heading over to "Smaland" to check out the kid center. It looked like a lot of fun and Starlie looked pretty excited about it but unfortunately she did not meet the requirement, which was a bit of a bummer. The sign read "Children must be potty trained and be 37'' to 54'' tall". Well, she just is not quite that tall yet and while we are working on potty training we have not mastered it. So we continued on up an elevator (which she descided was WAY cooler than coloring anyways) to check out the store.

IKEA is HUGE. It felt like a mall...by itself. Multiple floors, very diverse sections selling different items, and even a restaurant area. We even got slightly lost and turned around a few times but because we were pleasurably just looking we did not mind. I get lost a lot so I am also just kind of used to it. :P

Starlie loved the children section of the store (and so did I). The toys were very reasonably priced and they had samples of most of the toys out for children to play with. 

Starlie Loved trying out the Toys!

We shopped around for about an hour (little ones get tired and hungry) and then we went to check out the Restaurant. I was seriously impressed with the prices and quality of the food. We had Turkey-Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes, and Cranberry Jelly and Drink all for about $6.50. Our little one got to eat free (she had Mac & Cheese). I highly recommend eating at the IKEA restaurant...even if you are not a huge fan of cafeteria style food, the convenience alone makes it worth trying at least once.

I can not wait to go back to IKEA for Christmas shopping! The toys were very reasonable in my opinion and with the free Childcare (maybe by Christmas I will be able to take advantage) you could drop off the littles, go shop and buy presents, then go stuff/hide your gifts in the car and then all have lunch together. Christmas made easy and who doesn't like easy?!

After we had dinner we went and checked out the candy bar. I am pretty sure this was everyone's favorite thing. They have a lot of fun candies to choose from after all. They also have a lot of interesting foods and I am a huge fan of trying new things...especially tasty new things!

IKEA was a very fun place to visit, eat, play, and shop. I hope to look more closely and spend a little more time the next time I go! If you are interested here is a link to their website.