Owl Cafe Chouette — Restaurant in Osaka

One one-star review and hopefully no more after this. I visited this cafe a month and a half ago.

it is with regret that I cannot give more stars.

It started off well, and the owner seemed nice. He asked me to pet the owls, as I was just mesmerised by them and just wanted to look at them. He also offered to take pictures for me.

To explain how it went downhill, I first have to highlight that the owl petting area is separate from the cafe place where you sit to have your drink. As such I thought it reasonable to spend the 1 hour I paid ¥1500 for (which comes with a free drink that you are meant to drink in the cafe) inside the owl area. In fact, after 45 min I left the owl area to enter the cafe, without using the entire hour up.

About 10 minutes later I was asked if I’d like to stay or leave as that would cost another ¥500. I said I had enough, thank you.

But then the owner said “You have to pay ¥500”.

I was confused for a bit. Like why ask as if you’re giving me a choice, if you’re making me stay?? I responded saying I wanted to spend no longer than an hour there, and in fact have been inside for only 45 minutes.

He couldn’t understand much English and so proceeded to talk into a phone app to translate what he wanted to say - and got me to do the same - which was essentially the same thing over and over.

Eventually i got the idea that even sitting in the cafe was chargeable. I was going to have to pay ¥500/30min for SIPPING MY COFFEE, with no owl interaction. Immediately I stood up, already quite thrown off, and said OK well i’m not staying to pay money to drink my coffee so thank you very much i shall leave.

He then pointed to his watch and said that the time had already been exceeded (by 3 minutes) and insisted I HAD to pay ¥500.

Levels of ridiculousness WHO pays for a coffee and then pays for the time to drink it?? Even if this redonkulous rule was a thing, at least make it known somewhere in English - on your website or when I first enter and you tell me about sanitising my hands and how to stroke the owls Even if there was a language barrier, he used an APP to tell me to pay money. Why didn’t he use the same app to warn me about this? Instead, no effort was made to highlight this to me. They did not even alert me to the fact that my time was up before asking me if I wanted to extend. because of the language barrier, it added an extra (at least) 5 minutes without which i wouldn’t even have spent an hour collectively at both places combined.

I get that ¥500 may not be much to some, but i simply cannot agree with the principle behind this money-making scheme.

Anyways the owls were gorgeous, and that’s what the only...

Going to Japan I heard about all these animal cafes and being an animal lover I was like yes I have to do this when I visit. My top cafe I wanted to visit was the owl cafe. I couldn't believe I could see owls that close and even pet them?? That's insane. I've only seen them briefly fly by at night. I chose this cafe because of the good reviews and the cute photos. I had made a reservation prior and was able to get in on time everything was very clean which was great. But after interacting with the owls something you can't really tell in photos but they felt sad almost a shell of who they use to be. Just staring off into the corners of the room. What made me feel even worse is seeing that alot of these owls have been here since 2016 and going back through Google to see the same owls sitting in the same spots for years, they felt and looked trapped/bored just waiting for their time to end. I wish I knew how these owls got here are they rescued? They obviously look like they've been taken as babies to get use to this type of unnatural environment. I then learned from independent research that owls don't like to be in this close proximity to other owls and be exposed to be in such a brightly lit room. I don't think they have any time after to rest or be in a more natural environment? I don't know I just realized that there is a reason why no other country can do this because at the end of the day it is cruel. I feel horrible supporting something like this and wish all these cafes would close down or only be allowed for domesticated animals like cats or dogs. I was conflicted because I love animals and I'm like oh if something like this is open it must be okay but that's not true. Just because something is cute and is open and lots of tourist do it doesn't mean it's a good thing. Writing this review hoping to help others that might feel the same way but are confused about...

I honestly feel like an B-hole for coming here. I love owls so when I heard there were owl cafés in Japan, I was ecstatic. Besides a couple at the zoo, I have never seen one up close or got to pet one. We got a pass for 1hr to get to meet them and you could pet them gently. At first, there were only a couple ppl there, including ourselves. They went over the rules with us and then let us go into the owl room. I was over joyed for the first 2-3 minutes, but that quickly faded. The owls looks scared and would move away or bend down when you tried petting them. Some were hiding behind other owls. One large guy was perched by the window just staring out. Others were chewing on the rope, tethering them to their stations. I felt horrible for them, my heart was literally breaking. I asked if they have an area to let them fly around and the lady said "yes, we let them fly in this area." The owl area cannot be more than 300 -350 sqft. They look taken cared of and they look well fed, but once you see them, you can see and literally feel their sadness and discomfort. I feel bad giving it a 1 star bc the staff was friendly, the place is clean, and they do care for the animals for the most part. However, before we left, the place started getting crowded. Kids were super loud in the owl area and they just don't deserve to live in captivity like this. Like I siad, I feel like a complete and totally B-hole for going and I hope these owls have freedom they...