Java Whiskers — Restaurant in Stockholm

A Disrespectful and Overpriced Experience - Extremely Uncomfortable for Children

As a mother, a lawyer, and a lifelong cat lover, I came to this café with high hopes. My 6 year old daughter and I both love cats, and she has had many experiences with cats - always treating them with care and gentleness. Before our visit, I thoroughly explained the rules to her to make sure she behaved appropriately.

Despite all this, our 55 minute visit was overshadowed by the unacceptable behavior of one staff member - a woman with nice ginger hair - who treated us with constant suspicion, criticism, and control.

From the moment we walked in, she followed us closely, scolded my daughter multiple times, and created an environment of tension and discomfort. She didn’t offer support or guidance, but rather seemed to assume from the start that we were doing something wrong. It felt more like surveillance than hospitality. Instead of encouraging respectful interaction with the cats, she focused on putting my daughter down, over and over.

We paid 418 SEK for this - to be watched, nagged, and made to feel unwelcome. There were only a few cats present (most were sleeping), and any interaction felt restricted and discouraged. It was impossible to enjoy the experience or connect with the animals.

I fully understand the need to protect the cats - again, I’m a lawyer and absolutely support clear rules. But there is a way to enforce boundaries, especially when children are involved. That staff member lacked basic kindness, patience, and professionalism. She could have used the moment to educate or encourage. Instead, she made my daughter feel small and unwanted.

We left feeling upset and disappointed - not only did this ruin our day, but it also completely killed our interest in adopting a cat from the café, which we had seriously considered.

I cannot recommend this place to anyone, especially not families. The atmosphere is judgmental, joyless, and cold - and for a place centered around the love of cats, that’s a deep shame.

The cats themselves were lovely - it’s just unfortunate that the human interaction ruined...

Plus: The staff is very nice and helpful, cats are cute, and you can video or photo them and the place Minus: the booking is 150kr per person for an hour just to sit down, it contains nothing else. I understand it goes for upkeep and the cats too, but that's quite a price for basically nothing. You don't know really how many will be there, and if you even get the chance to be with the cats, and they make this mandatory basically before you can start adopting. Of course, it all depends on how many other people are there and how aggressive they are, when we visited there were some people who wouldn't leave the cats alone, hog them as much as possible so out of the hour, we got maybe 5 minutes with 2 cats out of the 9. Also, the cafe is basically one big room, with a stage in the front, it is extremely awkward to look at all the other people and try to get the cats to come to you instead of them. No wonder many cats simply hid, it was too overwhelming for them. All in all, I left with feeling nowhere closer to my goal, which is adoption, and spent an awkward 40 minutes, since even if I paid for an hour, I didn't see the point staying the time. Also not clear how the staff ensures people spend the time they paid for...

The concept would be very cool, but the execution really lacks the potential. Maybe and hopefully, the booking price will be turned to create more cozy, separate booths that is friendly for both people and cats, leaving more opportunities to actually be with the cats.

Update: I got in contact with the adoption home as they recommended after visiting the Caffe, 4 weeks passed with no answer, although they promise to get back within maximum 2 weeks. With that, and making the visit to the Caffe mandatory to adopt (also not free), I would say it is probably a mild scam, not involving adoption. The point is to keep the cats in the Caffe and get visitors.

Seems they flagged my review as using offensive or obscene language, great way to...

We booked a time and were told to arrive earlier to get some information. It was completely empty by the counter, and yet we were forced to wait while the worker was making food right in front of us. The silence was super awkward. She could’ve told us the information while working…

Instead, she started talking right when it was our booked time which means we’ve lost like 10 min with the cats. Super inefficient service imo.

The area where you take off your shoes and wash your hands looked kinda grey and sad. It didn’t feel very welcoming.

The cafe area where the cats roam around wasn’t the best either. It was dark and the walls were made of stone or something which makes the sound echo a lot. It’s not fun for the guests, and I’m not sure how nice it is for the cats’ sensitive ears.

There was also a big “stage” like area in the middle of the cafe where the cats were sitting. It was heavily illuminated with a bright lamp. It felt a little intimidating to approach the cats cause of that.

I also disliked that the worker would come in and start feeding the cats treats, making a spectacle out of it. I would prefer to be able to gently approach a cat and get to know it, rather than watch it sit on a stage in the middle of a room or run after the worker who has a bunch of snacks.

I may be biased though as I’m a regular visitor at Gothenburg’s Purrfect Cafe which has a very welcoming personnel and atmosphere. Also, we visited Java Whiskers last year, so things may have improved since then.

The good thing about the cafe though is that they had pretty tasty tea. I liked...