Within an hour of its opening on Friday, the Tampines outlet of Ikea Singapore had sold 800 plates of meatballs.

At the Alexandra branch, which usually sells 700 plates on Fridays, an average of 600 plates were sold each hour.

Long queues formed from 11am at Tampines, with some packing meatballs into containers to bring them home. For one day only on Friday, the meatballs were sold at 10 cents each after Ikea Singapore had suspended sales on Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013.