IKEA Meatballs not what they used to be

After the furniture, IKEA is best known for their meatballs.  I have friends who make an effort to drive out to IKEA (New York, New Jersey, Hong Kong, Singapore...) for the single purpose of eating two orders of 15 meatballs at a time.

Diehard IKEA meatball fans will be sad to know that the recipe has recently changed.  They've stated as such:

 Are these the same meatballs ?
"Well ... no actually they're not!"
Recently, the IKEA Food Services replaced the meatballs with ones that are made using better quality beef and pork mixed to a more traditional Swedish recipe.
The beef and pork are sourced from approved suppliers that operate to the highest quality export standards to ensure food is fresh & safe for consumption.
So if you’ve been wondering whether the meatballs look and taste different… you are right! They are different.
We hope to bring you a little bit closer to Sweden by serving you more authentic looking and tasting meatballs.
Smaklig måltid!

What the new meatballs look like:

The reformed meatballs are about 3/4 the size of the original and are slightly oblong - probably as a result of the softer density.  There is no longer a bouncy-texture to the bite and instead a mushier consistency, almost resembling meatloaf.

Usually, I ask the server to glop on an extra spoonful of lingonberry sauce.  This time around, I found the new meatball recipe less salty, less dry with less bite, resulting in not needing as much of the tart lingonberry sauce to balance it out.

 It's probably true that the ingredients are higher quality, and perhaps closer to what a real Swedish meatball might be in Sweden.  But if you're anything like me... let's just say I don't go to McDonald's because I think they have real burger standards, yet I get the McD's processed food cravings all the same.  If I want a real burger, I'll go to a proper restaurant or Shake Shack.

Verdict:  IKEA is not a nice restaurant, so they should just keep it cheap, keep it despicably delicious.  Maybe it's just my crave for the familiar, but I don't like this attempt at higher quality meatballs.  Give me my salty round balls.

(Thanks to Keith for alerting me to this meatball change - I see why he went on for 10 minutes straight about this preposterous "non-ball shaped meatBALLS!".)