Cat Café Kociarnia — Restaurant in Krakow

The idea is nice, but when I visited, it was unfortunately very clear the cats' welfare was not a priority, and that customers were more important than the cats. As a result, there were a lot of stressed, overwhelmed cats being endlessly bothered by people who would rather get a pat or a cuddle than genuinely care about the cats. My impression was that this was nowhere near a rescue centre or a shelter, but a capitalist venture that prioritises making money at the expense of cats.

During my visit for lunch, two cats were so overwhelmed that they snapped at people (i.e., lunged and went to bite them) to tell them to stop touching them, but the people just laughed and went right back to touching them.

One cat kept circling the space – hunched down and very obviously stressed, hugging the wall and trying to hide under chairs – for the whole hour I was there, and couldn't find a spot to be left alone (there is no private space for the cats to retreat to). Even though it was VERY obviously not ok, everyone it went past still reached out and patted it – even though it would flinch and lower its belly to the ground to get away from every hand, and they all saw that before doing it themselves.

One of the only places to get away from people is up high, and one poor cat went up and slept all crooked with half its body up on a solid log, because that was preferable to being on the ground with people.

There were rules given to everyone as a condition of entry, and literally no-one followed them. If cats were sleeping, you weren't meant to wake them. I watched one sleeping cat be woken by 6 different people in a 10-minute period. Children were running around the space, patting every sleeping cat. People were shoving their cameras in their faces, which would wake them with a bit of a fright. Staff never intervened.

You also weren't meant to feed cats. One woman fed one chocolate (harmful to cats!) while a staff member was right nearby, then some icing. The staff member saw the icing and took it off the cat – but then smacked its nose, even though it didn't do anything wrong. The people who fed it, meanwhile, didn't get told off at all – they just got to stay and eat their cake.

The rules also said to keep quiet so the cats weren't stressed. The main door to enter, however, screeches loudly and then bangs every time it opens, which is every time a staff member brings anything in or out or a person comes in or leaves. A family came in and chatted and laughed at full volume, and no-one told them to quieten down. Children literally ran around the space, and no-one stopped them.

I saw lots of stuff here that was bordering on being cruel rather than kind. Additionally, the space was filthy – the chairs were covered in food and the table was sticky. I was so uncomfortable I left. My sense was that by supporting this place with money, I was unintentionally supporting the mistreatment of cats. It...

Hands down one of the cutest and best places I've ever been. I was completely enchanted. Either by the way people are handling the kitties there and also by the food and coffee itself 😻💓

Before you get in you get a little rule book on how to act and how to handle the cats in place, so they make sure straight from the beginning people do not randomly disturb them, pick them up and so on. You notice the value of that rules when you get in and take a seat cause all the cats feel super comfortable and at home even tho the room is full of strangers.

They hang around seat accompany people while having a coffee or on top of their heads purring on little shelfs. It's beyond adorable. You can also notice they love the stuff working there cause they're really attached to them and take good notice their humans are right aswell serving the other guests. It's really nice to notice.

The food and beverage is lovely aswell. The got a good range of tea, coffee, some iced latte and other tasty brews. I had a cheesecake aside which was also delicious and the service was super nice and quick aswell.

If I'd live in krakow you'd definitely find me there every week for a...

Hey everyone. Please consider my review as an advice and not complaint. I believe there should be some strategic changes made to how that cafe functions. Concept is good but implementation is like that : you visit the cafe, where you want to just eat & drink and have a pleasure seeing cats and communication with them if they wants. But in reality, you see cats trying to escape the cafe by the door, and kids are trying to catch them, take them out of their houses, pet them even if they don’t want that. That works for kids at age 6-10 years old as well, so your ban for under school kids doesn’t work. People even don’t see cats, it’s just only cats trying to hide and kids trying to catch them. My advice would be : adjust minimal age of visit to 8-9 years old. Make some entrance fee with strict rules around interacting with cats where people should be kicked out if they refuse to follow them, teach your personal to watch for people, that should be the main task in that cafe for them. Also, maybe it makes sense to make some specific area where you can interact with cats, but with special entrance fee as well(take example from...