mipig cafe Meguro — Restaurant in Tokyo

"Watch out for the big one"

I will share my realizations from spending 55 minutes in this unique space. Naturally, this reflects my personal thoughts.

It’s not too far from Meguro Station to Mipig. It takes less than 20 minutes to walk with a child. However, there’s no crosswalk in front of the store, so make sure to cross to the north beforehand. The drinks ordered on the first floor are served in paper/plastic cups and cannot be taken outside. I wonder why? Make sure to drink them before leaving.

Now, for the main review:

The small open space on the second floor has 5 tables, but these are for serving drinks. You have to sit on the floor. While Asians are used to sitting with their both legs folded on the floor for comfort, Westerners might find it a bit challenging.

On December 30, 2024, when I visited, there were about 16 pigs in total. One very large pig (compared with others) with a fierce personality that you can’t hold, another large pig, and the rest are very small so they can be held on your lap. The pigs initially don’t approach, but as time goes on, they start to move around, mostly due to the big pig. It’s not very enjoyable to watch the big pig occasionally bite the baby pigs, and it can be quite alarming. A Spanish girl there screamed several times.. but fine in general.

However, this also presents an opportunity for you. If you can effectively block the big pig (important!), you will be able to enjoy the time with many baby pigs around you. If the big pig approaches, you can block it with the table to protect the baby pigs or gently push its head away to keep it from coming closer. If you have a child who is afraid of animals, please make sure to do this. In the end, your family/group can hold more than 50% of total pigs continuously if you do 'the practice'.

Additional feelings/comments: At first, it felt awkward; I never had a pig so closely like this in my life, but the time spent cuddling the baby pigs wasn’t bad. There's a good feeling from baby, even if it's pig. However, every pig seems to be constantly "chewing" on something, and sometimes white saliva collects at the corners of their mouths. So the experience is completely different from the ones you can actively communicate with, like dogs.

I saw one video in Youtube, and she used the word "well trained pig". I can't agree that they were trained. Feeding them is not allowed here, especially due to the nature of pigs I guess?. You can feed dog, cat, but not pig in here.

Most people opt for 25 minutes. It might be a bit short, but I believe with 'the tips' above, you can have a good time with the baby pigs in that duration.

While all animals are precious, if you value your time that you paid a high price for, I think it’s better not to have the big pig around for both parties, as the staff does not manage the big pigs. This is the reason for minus one. I am fine because my daugher was...

We arrived at mipig cafe in Meguro at our scheduled time, only to be greeted by a man who seemed clearly annoyed by our presence. His demeanor was cold and short, which wasn’t the most welcoming start, but we brushed it off. After being directed upstairs and taking off our shoes, we were seated and brought our drinks. Up to this point, it was a passable experience.

But what followed was genuinely disturbing.

From the moment we sat down, the experience took a dark turn. We heard the screams of pigs being picked up and carried around – a sound that no animal lover could ever ignore. These animals were clearly distressed. It was obvious they didn’t want to be handled, and even more heartbreaking, they seemed exhausted from being passed around all day against their will.

Some of the pigs showed signs of aggression toward each other – a likely sign of stress and overstimulation. Instead of addressing this as a welfare concern, staff simply lifted one pig and plopped it onto someone else’s lap like an object. No regard for the animal’s comfort or well-being.

Staff would crouch beside you and continuously poke and prod the pigs to force them to stay on your lap. We had to repeatedly tell them to stop. At one point, they even tried to put three pigs on us at once – again, with zero regard for the animals or our comfort.

We came here under the impression that mipig was an ethical animal cafe where pigs were free to roam and engage if they chose to. That is absolutely not the case. This was not a cute, wholesome animal encounter – it felt exploitative and upsetting.

We paid for a full hour but walked out after just five minutes, horrified. They have our money, and we have this awful memory.

We deeply regret not reading reviews beforehand and falling for the overly curated TikTok content. Let this be your warning: DO NOT support this place. If you truly care about animals,...

While it may be tempting for cute pictures and the “good” reviews (most of which are incentivized by a discount), PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THESE MINI PIG CAFES.

I feel so naive after my visit as it is obvious that these pigs are in distress and living under cruel conditions. The room of the cafe is very small and cramped, with no toys for stimulation or teething, which explains their constant teeth grinding/chewing out of boredom and stress. They are also very bony and as you can see in the picture, some have visible ribs and shoulder blades, which is likely to keep them small for as long as possible from malnutrition.

One particularly disturbing moment was watching one attendant throw a handful of kibble to the twelve pigs with the pigs subsequently aggressively fighting with each other for the small amounts of food. The smaller and skinnier ones seemed to be unable to fight off the larger ones for food.

Another disturbing moment was the attendant forcefully grabbing a pig by the snout after it had slightly bit at me out of the stress from being picked up repeatedly by attendants and placed on my lap. Considering in the waiver that you are asked to sign prior to entering, it is stated that you are not allowed to pick up the pigs as it stresses them out— I don’t understand why the attendants constantly pick them up and force them to sit in guests laps instead of letting them come to us on their own.

Overall, it was very painful to watch as an animal lover, and I honestly cried after leaving the establishment. Again, please please please, do not visit these extremely unethical businesses that profit off the...