“We Could Have Stayed Open — We Didn’t”: IKEA Cheras Director Sets Record Straight On Hygiene Closure
IKEA Malaysia’s Country Retail Director Malcolm Pruys gives the first detailed account of the June closure at IKEA Cheras — separating what inspectors actually found from the viral narrative it generated.
IKEA Cheras closed its Swedish Restaurant immediately upon receiving the hygiene notice, hours before the legal deadline, and completed repairs faster than required.
Violations were operational and confined to the kitchen; no contaminated food was found, and the restaurant has passed every independent audit since opening.
On 17 June, health inspectors walked into the Swedish Restaurant at IKEA Cheras and did not leave empty-handed.
The Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya Health Department issued a closure order under Section 11 of the Food Act 1983, citing the premises as “tidak bersih” — not clean and sanitised to a standard safe for public consumption.
Within hours, the notice was photographed, shared, and dissected across Malaysian social media.
By the next morning, it had gone viral.
The restaurant reopened five days later, on 22 June.
The mandatory closure period is 14 days.
Diners at the IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant on a weekday following its reopening on 22 June 2026. The restaurant, which seats nearly 800 people, is operating at approximately 85 per cent of its pre-closure footfall.Raymand Yeastman, Country Food Manager at IKEA Malaysia, stands over the affected drain in the kitchen of the IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant. The drain, inaccessible to staff during routine cleaning, was where inspectors found evidence of cockroaches during the 17 June inspection.The IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant dining area, now fitted with new wooden floor lamination — one of several upgrades carried out beyond what the Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya Health Department required as a condition of reopening.
What The Closure Was — And Was Not
Malcolm Pruys, Country Retail Director of IKEA Malaysia, sat down with TRP after the reopening to give the first detailed account of what inspectors actually found.
The violations, he said, were operational — not a sign of systemic neglect.
A no-smoking sign was missing inside the commercial kitchen, and one employee, a new hire, had not yet completed food safety certification — one person out of a team of 60.
Food in a freezer was not covered as required.
And in a drain beneath the kitchen floor, inspectors found evidence of cockroaches.
We had done pest control four days before the inspection. The ministry knows that after pest control, cockroaches come out. That’s partly why the minimum closure period exists — to allow time for that process to complete.
No contaminated food was found, and no issues were flagged with the customer dining area; the violations were confined to the kitchen and its operational procedures.
The rest of the IKEA Cheras store — the furniture showroom, the café, the bistro, and the Swedish Food Market — remained open throughout.
Faster Than Required
IKEA was told to close by 10 PM on 17 June, but the restaurant shut its doors at 1 PM — the moment the notice was issued.
We could have legally continued to operate until closing. We didn’t.
The team then went beyond what the closure order required.
All kitchen plumbing was replaced entirely — a step, Pruys noted, that was not mandated by the Health Department.
Pest control was intensified, and the one untrained staff member was certified by that Friday.
After five days, IKEA requested reinspection, and authorities cleared the restaurant to reopen on 22 June.
Nobody did anyone any favours. We fixed what needed fixing, and the authorities were satisfied.
All IKEA dining establishments nationwide, including the IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant, are officially certified halal by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM).Raymand in the back-of-house kitchen — the operational heart of a restaurant that serves up to 10,000 diners every day.A tray of Swedish meatballs, fresh from the kitchen at IKEA Cheras. Multiply this by a thousand — and you begin to understand the scale of what this restaurant handles every single day.
Three Audits A Year, Zero Failures
The closure notice used broad statutory language — tidak bersih dan disucikan — which is standard wording under the Food Act, not a specific description of conditions found.
That language, combined with a wave of customer comments on social media, shaped a narrative of longstanding neglect.
Pruys acknowledged the feedback but pushed back on the framing.
Our food safety record historically speaks for itself. We are audited independently and unannounced three times a year. We have not failed a single audit since we opened.
IKEA’s own internal food safety standards, he added, are set higher than Ministry of Health requirements — meaning the restaurant fell short of its own bar, not just the government’s.
That’s what disappoints us more.
The Restaurant That Outgrew Itself
The IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant is, by Pruys’ account, the highest-volume IKEA restaurant in the world — not by floor size, but by the amount of food sold.
It seats nearly 800 people and outpaces the IKEA Damansara Sara restaurant by roughly 20 per cent.
It was not built to do this volume. As the restaurant got busier, we faced operational challenges.
Those challenges — queues, table turnover, an ageing physical space — are separate from the hygiene violations, but they fed the same comment section.
Pruys said the restaurant is now working through a multi-year programme to refresh equipment and furniture, piece by piece, without closing.
Footfall since the reopening is at approximately 85 per cent of pre-closure levels.
We understand that. We’ll keep giving people a reason to come back. And if someone says they’re never returning — I’m sorry we let you down. Hopefully, over time, we’ll change your mind.
The dining area of the IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant, decorated with Swedish flags, pictured after its reopening. The restaurant serves up to 10,000 diners daily — a volume that IKEA Malaysia says outpaced the infrastructure it was originally built to support.
The open-counter kitchen at the IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant — every diner can see exactly how their food is being prepared.Raymand, at the customer feedback station in the IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant. Gathering and acting on customer feedback is central to the store’s strategy for building customer relations.
The IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant is open daily. A 15% discount offered at reopening ran until 26 June.All photos taken at IKEA Cheras Swedish Restaurant by the writer.
