It may be a good idea to avoid Hongqiao Airport on Friday night, but give yourself a treat and don't avoid the Ikea restaurant on a weekday afternoon.

Normally Jodi and I visit Ikea on the weekends and stop to eat dinner. We're both big fans of the Swedish meatballs. I always ask for extra lingonberry jam. Usually we try to arrive a little before meal time to avoid the crowds, but we often find ourselves hunting for seats anyways! I always thought that was the worst part of dinner at Ikea on a weekend but today we swung by for lunch -- and to buy a baby changing table -- after a doctor's appointment and found how much more we have been missing. (Or maybe I'm wrong and they've just improved the service overall? Time will tell.)

The difference was dramatic. At lunch today we found four different kinds of rolls: round buns, croissants, 豆沙 and apple pastry; usually on the weekends they have two, and most of the time they are all gone. Nothing was out of stock this time; in fact bins were full and plates were doubled up waiting for us. We found several kinds of vegetable and fruit salad, and little cups of potato or macaroni salad. We opted for the apple-celery option, hold the Thousand Island. Standing in line is the norm on weekends, whether waiting for a tray or to pay for your meal; today we zipped right through. Usually dessert is two kinds of nut tart or tiramisu; today there was strawberry cake, and several other choices. Finally on weekends the soda is often flat or running low on syrup; today it was flavorfull and bubbly. I told Jodi that I would die of happiness if they had ice cubes.

As usual, they didn't. Well, nobody's perfect.