KYOTO MAMESHIBA CAFE — Restaurant in Kyoto

Don't go there... The dogs are not really happy about the situation (whatever it is exactly). The staff is very friendly but that's about it.

I went there on a week day late afternoon. Maybe morning sessions are better (for the dogs because they are rested) but I was told that the dogs are already tired and it's forbidden to hold them. (after I reserved and paid a slot)

The dogs had absolutely no interest in interaction with the people. One didn't even want to walk between me and another customer.. Clearly afraid aka really against the idea of being touched by us. Everyone saw that this dog especially didn't want to be pet. It was a 30 min slot and out of the 30 I spent 20 alone on the floor with my vending machine drink hoping a dog would finally come over. I noticed a chew toy (one toy was in the room, just one) and actually the most shy dog really really wanted to chew so we got something going.... I was then holding a chew toy for the dog for 10 minutes and that was about the best interaction I could get. And I'm pretty sure the dog thought the same like "at least noone is trying to pet me, jeez".

One dog was sleeping next to and on another customer. I think they got probably the most social or the most tired dog. Maybe both.

One dog peed in the room even though they have peeing places... I just assume it was really stressed.

I felt really bad after having been there wondering if animal cafés in general should not exist (no institution that abuses animals for money, even it its "just" putting them in a stressful situation, should exist. I don't think most animals do well in social café situations, but I thought well trained and rested dogs might actually enjoy something like this but...

Terrible experience in this cafe. Do not recommend to the travelers who don’t want to get disappointed and upset. Service. They will keep you waiting by side while they trying to serve the customer in lines first so they would have continuous people coming. Activity is restricted so that they can lie to us that the white Shiba we saw while we are waiting in line, but the waittress lie to us that the white Shiba is not in this cafe. All you can expect are their apologies and lies if you have any confusion or need any help. 2.Shiba The Shiba in the cafe are puppy. 4 Shiba serve about 10 customers. Both the dogs and people are tired in the room. Shiba are indeed adorable, but they are poorly trained. It is very obvious that they don’t want to interact with any customer, and don’t even mention customer are not allow to hold them in hands to pet. The Shiba we saw were barking at children, and pee on the floor, where customer normally sit. There are no treats or food available for sale to feed them, and the Shiba feel very skinny. 3.Environment The cafe is extremely narrow, 6 tables in the first floor, 4 of us were asked to sit in the same desk. In addition, the decoration was simple. Cafe was made in vender machine, and most customer did not finish the cafe as it tasted really bad. 4.Local What’s put this terrible experience to a whole another level is that one domestic customer described us as “disturbing and disgusting” with F* word simply because we are standing in this very narrow room asking about the white Shiba we would like to pet. And the waitress chose to lie to us and apologized to her instead of helping us.

In a word,...

The place for us to remove our shoes were really tiny, then we were assigned to the 2nd lvl. Staff explained that the shibbies are still in training and are very shy and timid, so they said we aren't allowed to carry them or pet their heads as it may frighten them. You get a free vending machine drink during this 30 mins session.

Obviously, after that you can clearly tell that the Shibbies are really shy and they tend to follow the staff more or would just lay down near the entrance. Luckily, there was one black shibby that was more playful, so we could at least play with one. The rest were pretty restless and would just walk past us while we are attempting to touch it. Oh! And you get to share the room with 4 other couples so you have to be more pro-active or you might not get to play with the shibbies at all.

Personally, I still enjoy this experience as I am very fond of shiba inus. Even though they were less playful with us, it was nice to be around them and see how they interact with humans and their fellow shibbies. However, they should be more upfront about the shibbies when we were purchasing the tickets rather than telling us after getting the tix. But to be fair, the shibbies are currently under training (One of them named Shibata even peed on the floor XD)which means they're only gonna get better in the near future so maybe some day, some lucky couples can have a better...