Cat Cafe — Restaurant in Budapest

Took my girlfriend from Dublin to Budapest and the number one thing on her list was to visit this cat cafe. What a colossal waste of time and money. The staff were extremely rude and dismissive. We came in excited and were met with complaints and angry faces immediately when they realised we couldn’t speak Hungarian. They then sat us upstairs where we noticed, put us among other English speaking people far away from all the cats and nicer atmosphere. I would’ve just went to a normal cafe if I didn’t want cats around… this all led up to the bad part; on our departure we were going to get a drink to go, because it was a busy birthday. My girlfriend requested an ice coffee to go (she had ordered one already and just ordered the same exact thing again) and was met with a hot coffee, she doesn’t normally ask the waiters to switch over the order as she’s shy but in this case as it was her birthday and she hates hot drinks I encouraged her to let the staff know as I assumed it’d be no small feat to switch over the drink to a cold one (I had a video on my phone that I happened to be taking of the cats downstairs at the time of ordering in which you can overhear her asking for another iced latte so we were certain it wasn’t our mistake as we have both worked in the industry in the past and didn’t want to disturb them if we were in the wrong. The waitress she spoke to sighed very dramatically, angrily loudly enough for the entire cafe to hear and look over at the waitress clearly trying to make a show of my girlfriend - who is not a fan of attention at all. My girlfriend was mortified and the event really did put a downer on what should’ve been a special birthday for her. Appalling behaviour from members of service staff here. A minute later she returns to us with a tiny glass of two ice cubes which is clearly not what we were hoping for, any barista would know the iced drinks are made very differently than just putting ice into boiling drinks, but because we didn’t want to ask twice again she tried it - she took one small sip and said she’d prefer to leave it - So she did, because she just wanted to leave having been publicly embarrassed by the waitress.

I went alone to pay as my girlfriend just wanted to get out as she had felt bad and I wanted to discuss my distaste about the hot to cold coffee mixup which could have resulted in some positive feedback had the waitress just apologised or switched over the drink there and then - I never like to leave any service industry without leaving a tip or thanking the staff. Unfortunately it became heated as the same problematic waitress overcharged me, for the drink we didn’t drink which I refused to pay for given the service in which it was presented and the lack of guilt the waitress felt as she sniggered behind the desk. She used the language barrier as an excuse. I may provide a screenshot directly of her social media account sent solely for management to correct her behaviour, assuming they plan to reach out and apologise on behalf of the cafe; I am a social media influencer & columnist in travel for one of Ireland’s top papers, so it was very easy to find her identify online. Failing this I can provide details of her physical appearance and exact time and date of transaction. I was then told that I couldn’t take photos of her within the cafe which I had said I would use for this review if management needed assistance in identifying her, as I didn’t see a name badge. I was told this within the cafe even though their website states very clearly that photos are welcome (screenshot below).

That said, Huge thank you to the one waitress (of which there were 5 whom treated me with complete disrespect) who did provide the right drink in the end after I had returned to discuss the overcharge found on my receipt. No doubt the problematic waitress was giving out to her after she had offered to right this wrong - though I’m not sure of exact wording as she was screaming at her in Hungarian and causing a scene. Wishing the cats well anyways as they were the only nice part of...

One of the worst experiences, I’m not gonna lie. And we’re cat lovers! Place was semi-full when we arrived, we were seated upstairs where there were no cats, besides one that woke up and went downstairs as soon as us and other two customers got seated. I did not go there cause I was craving their exceptionally well made lemonade or something. I went there cause I was looking forward to cat sightseeing, not even expecting interaction.

Anyway, that ruined my day. They don’t let you move unless they move you where they want. So we try again another day, thinking it may have just been bad luck. We arrive and this other girl, not the one who served us before (which at least was kinda nice and did her job and was polite), she welcomes us with a resting btch face and I really thought for a second that I arrived at a Karen Cafe (iykyk). She presented us with the rules and would not let us enter before I had to tell her that we’d been there before already. She looked so bothered. Then I said I want a table for two and she immediately pointed us upwards again and I was like…stop. We would really prefer a table downstairs please (I should’ve taken a picture I swear to god but we were still at the door, that would’ve been weird. I SWEAR THERE WERE TWO EMPTY TABLES THAT SAT 4 EACH) and she refused saying it’s full downstairs. I just turned around and said “Then we’re gonna go, thank you tho”. And I’ll attach a picture I took on the first day we went, showing TWO OTHER CUSTOMERS seated AT A FOUR SEAT TABLE. Idk why you like doing this to customers but it’s very shtty. Might wanna change the attitude and the stpid rules about sitting. Date we went to with the rude waitress was 04.aug.2025 girl had...

This place was really upsetting. I understand why the concept is popular. However, there is a conflict of interest when living creatures are being used as part of a business model. I'm sure if the cats could choose, they would rather prefer peace and quiet over the constant unwanted attention. Most of the customers had a sense of entitlement. They believed they could pet and stroke the animals at will, even if their attention wasn't reciprocated by the animals. The animals were being treated as playthings, objects for entertainment. If you know and respect animals, then you'll understand even as pets, animals still have needs, needs which extend beyond the gratification of their owners. Unfortunately, the customers sense of entitlement coupled with a need to feel affection meant their needs were being prioritised over the animal's needs, and to think that is something to pay for as a privilege or service made me feel awful. We paid for the drinks because we ordered them, but I felt ashamed to have supported a business that exploited animals for the pleasure of human entertainment. For what it's worth some of the cats were accustomed, the younger ones were very on edge, nervous. They were definitely stressed. This isn't a place...