Friday’s Featured Food: Ikea’s 95p Ulster Fry Bates The Credit Crunch!!

Ikea’s 95p Ulster Fry Bates The Credit Crunch!!

This morning I got an Ulster Fry (that’s a proper fried breakfast to anyone outside of Northern Ireland/Ulster) for just 95pence, that’s right five pence less than £1. A SEVEN piece Ulster Fry for just 95 p, plus I got two free cups of Earl Grey tea with that. This included scrambled egg, beans, tomato, soda bread, tattie bread, bacon and sausage! Not bad eh? What’s all this talk about a “credit crunch”, a “recession” and “over inflation”? Seriously: some people expect too much in life, modern day snobs, people eating food which costs too much, people investing in stocks and shares…So Ikea in Belfast is doing their bit for the local people of Northern Ireland! The Ikea in Belfast, situated at Holywood, near Knocknagoney and right opposite George Best Belfast City airport is an excellent location just off the main Bangor – Belfast road. It opened in 2007, when the Swedish company finally brought their business to the island of Ireland. This sort of venture wouldn’t have happened during a 1980s, or even a 1990s Belfast. Fair play to Ikea, great furniture at decent prices, great range, great quality and a nice consumer brand in all honesty, and then to cap it all off there is the cheap fry up in the Store Restaurant.

So how did I come to learn of this then? Well through my Mum, who I am staying with this week while I am holidaying back in Bangor, Northern Ireland. My Mum always cooks me an Ulster Fry when I am home here, but for 95p there is no way she could do it, consider the breakdown, roughly:
Packet of potato bread – 90 p
Packet of soda bread – £1
6 pack of eggs – 70 p
2 sausages – 50 p
2 rashers of bacon – 65 p
Tin of beans – 35 p
Tomatoes – 6 pack for 90 p
(this is a very rough guide, and obviously means buying more than what is in one Ulster fry, but you see my point?)
My Mum has known about the 95p Ulster Fry in Ikea for ages and today decided to take me to try it. Of course I was up for it!

We arrived at Ikea just after 10 am (I think the breakfast is served 9 – 11 am), where we parked and then entered and joined a very short queue for the fry in the first floor restaurant. The restaurant itself is very clean, very big, very spacious and has an amazing view. On route to the cooked breakfast there were sandwiches and fancy cakes, all a wee bit dearer than the cheap fry, probably to balance their takings. I was there with my Mum and three kids: Joshua, Patrick and Matthew. My Mum has always minded kids throughout her life, and these are three of the current lot! Three blond boys from Bangor. It was just me and my Mum having the fry while Patrick and Joshua had some cheese and strawberry jelly. My Mum and I had a fry each (7 pieces in each) and this came to a sum of £1.90 – you wouldn’t even get half a fry for that anywhere in England! Then my Mum at the counter also produced an Ikea “Family Card” (which are free and can be applied for instore or online) and with this card you get free tea and coffee! So that meant the total bill was £1.90 for two breakfasts! And what’s more the coffee and tea was unlimited refill, so I helped myself to an extra Earl Grey tea.

The view from Ikea restaurant is also class, the window overlooks the runway at George Best Belfast City Airport and even behind that we have Belfast harbour and docks, and in the distance the famous Harland and Wolff Shipyard, home of the Titanic. We sat by the window and enjoyed the view with our lovely Ulster Fry. Joshua was counting planes which he saw, and the total was 9 in a 40 minute period, we also saw some ships leave the harbour. Of course the idea from Ikea is that you will have your food and then buy loads of furniture, but let’s be honest in a credit crunch in the current UK, I’d happily eat my 95 p fry every day in Ikea’s restaurant and never buy any furniture. I don’t need furniture at the moment anyhow, but still it’s an extra incentive to love Ikea. There is bound to be an Ikea close by, check it out, and enjoy your 95 p breakfast!