Fancy Meow Cat Cafe — Restaurant in North Island

We have 4 cats. In New Zealand on holiday and my wife found this place and thought it would give her some "cat time" that she was missing from being away from home. As a cafe, it's just drinks and gelato. Gelato looked good, but we didn't have any. My hot chocolate was not very tasty. So, as a cafe, it doesn't score well. Price to enter the cat room was $18 per person for 50 minutes. We were surprised that this did not include a drink, as it seemed quite steep. We paid it anyway, for the experience. We honestly didn't know what to make of it. The cats are very tame, so you can approach them and pet them, but the vast majority of them just lie there. I honestly wondered if they had been sedated. We were concerned that the fur felt dirty, and one cat seemed to only have a couple of teeth (I'm hoping there's a reasonable explanation for this, rather than having had the teeth pulled to prevent biting customers). Cat hair was everywhere, and the cat smell was quite poignant. I was concerned about the hygiene. That said, we did like that there were a number of cat trees and some toys, as well as there being a few different rooms. Air con kept the temperature constant for the cats. Cat-themed objects were cute. Like I said, we didn't know what to make of it. We stayed half an hour before we began to feel a bit uncomfortable. I can't in good faith give more than 2 stars, given our concern for the cats. As I said, we have 4 cats ourselves, and my wife has thought about having something like a cat cafe. I'm not going to provide criticism without recommendations, so my suggestions would be: ensure cat fur is clean for customers have a regular cat-hair clean (e.g. every hour) install some sort of air fragrance, possibly up high so cats can't get to it easily and it disperses before it hits customers and cats invest in quality drinks do that you are an outstanding cafe, regardless of cats have a look at your pricing: can you include a drink in the fee? can you provide a discount for families?

There is so much potential for a place like this. Obviously cat care is the top priority, and drink quality should be next. Hit these two, and...

As ragdoll owners we couldn’t say no to visiting the Cat Cafe in Rotorua! We found the place great and a good place to have cats but we just have some feedback / advice for people visiting:

It was quite frustrating as a pair of paying adults to struggle to pat any cats as the place was overrun with children. Parents, if you are bringing your kids can you try and limit the screaming and barging in when adults are trying to pat the cats? I hate the whole rhetoric of “kids will be kids” we are paying customers and deserve to be able to sit and pat cats without a kid coming in and shoving toys and lint rollers in its face. Also respect the signs saying “no yelling” and “no kids under 12” in the back room. We have a cat cafe in our home town that has a blanket rule of no kids under 10 and everyone being seated whilst you’re inside so cats can come up to you and aren’t overwhelmed by kids being in their face all day.

I would suggest a staff member being in the room whilst sessions are running. It was distressing sometimes to see people picking up cats, kids roughly stroking cats and getting in their faces. By having a staff member in there and everyone seated it will limit the stress on the cats and frustration on other adults trying to have a nice time.

Otherwise we had a great time and loved petting all the cats as we are massive cat lovers! I would just suggest that you take into consideration the above and parents to be more mindful of your kids...

We went with my partner to see the cats, feeling very excited. To begin with, it’s called a café, but they don’t sell coffee. However, since the idea was to see the cats, we didn’t mind and agreed to pay the $18 entry fee. My partner isn’t a fan of cats, but when I saw that part of the entry fee included enjoying massage chairs, I asked the girl at reception about them, and she confirmed they had some.

Once we went in, there was no one else there, and the cats seemed bored. Unfortunately, there was a strong smell of cat urine. I know it’s hard to manage this, but my biggest disappointment came when I realised the massage chairs were actually broken chairs with something that might’ve given you a massage 10 years ago. I asked the receptionist about it, and she said the photos were from 18 years ago, which is why there were so many changes.

Overall, it was disappointing in every sense. My partner was upset because he didn’t even get to have a coffee, couldn’t enjoy the massage chairs, and I didn’t get to interact much with the cats because they’re not very accustomed to people. They’re adult cats, and you can’t pick them up either.

I’d recommend the place only if you want to just look at the cats, but before paying the entry fee, you can do exactly the same thing from the giant window on the street—which is what I’d suggest...