So hungry for an Ikea meatball that you could eat a horse?

The Sina Weibo alarmists who a week ago denounced Ikea's menu in response to reports of horse meat found in its meatballs are now quieting down. And their outrage hasn't exactly translated to a shortage of Ikea cafe customers.

At 2 pm this past Tuesday, the canteen inside Ikea's Beijing branch on Taiyanggong Lu, Chaoyang district, was still serving its popular meatballs to throngs of customers.

Almost no one at Ikea appears concerned about the meat on the menu. Despite recent outrage in Europe over the Swedish chain's meatballs testing positive for horse DNA, most dining know their lunch is in fact sourced in China.

This fact came to light after the public outcry when an Ikea spokesperson made an official statement February 22 that Ikea meatballs served in China were produced domestically, in Xiamen, Fujian Province.

"I heard about the fuss being made over the horse meat scandal in Europe," says Wang Xinluo, a 27-year-old software programmer working in Beijing.

"I know Ikea meat is from China, though that doesn't make people feel any better about the quality, quite frankly," he says.

Ikea's canteen menu includes roasted beef with potato cake and broccoli, spaghetti Bolognese and a spring offering of baked salmon.

Wang, who opts for spaghetti Bolognese, says he enjoys eating at Ikea for the "European vibe" as well as its self-service displays of Easter cake, tiramisu and French pastries.

"After you've finished eating here, you're expected to clean up after yourself. That, too, sounds very unfamiliar to Chinese people dining out," says Wang.

A monthly visitor to the cafeteria, Wang says he is not averse to eating horse meat, though he dislikes the thought of using synthetics in food to reproduce the taste of meat products.

"Fake beef, like fake chicken eggs, is another story altogether. It's not honest to serve people that stuff," he says.

Qin Jinghua power-walks across the canteen floor, threading through passing customers while eyeing Ikea's range of hot and cold drinks. A freelance illustrator, Qin, 41, says she has eaten breakfast at Ikea everyday for the past five years.

She believes Ikea provides a quintessentially European experience for those who wish to dine out.

"I've traveled to a lot of foreign countries. Eating at Ikea is a world apart from eating at Chinese restaurants. Italian food is quite exotic here and there is always Italian food on the menu here," she says.

Praising Ikea's "first-class service," Qin says she enjoys everything about the cafe, from the atmosphere to the desserts, which she likens to those "usually only served in foreign embassies, but pegged at reasonable prices."

But Qin says she isn't provoked by the horse meat scandal. Despite her love for European cuisine, Qin says she finds scaremongering over food safety in the West dull and tedious.

"Really I think they're making a big fuss over nothing," she says.

"I'd love to try horse meat. People have warned me that both horse and cat taste quite sour, but I wouldn't pass it up. Can't Europeans tell horse meat from beef anyway? I tell you, it wouldn't fool me. I know my meat!" she said.

Lan Ying is a graduate of Beijing Foreign Language Institute who says she rarely shops at Ikea, though says she visits the canteen on occasion because she likes the taste and quality of the food it serves.

"I heard about the scandal through the news on CCTV. I consider the food in Ikea to be European in style. Obviously no company can import products from Europe and still sell them at such low prices," says Lan, 26.

Lan and former classmate Yuan Yue, 25, happily share a plate of Ikea meatballs.

"The meat issue in Europe is minor compared with China's poisoned milk and bogus beef and mutton. At least they are not lethal," says Yuan, popping in a meatball with one hand and twirling a grease-stained Swedish flag with the other.