Monty's — Restaurant in King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Avoid at all costs on weekends!

We visited Saturday at 12pm and had a booking. We were going to the cafe under the recommendation of our friend who had been the previous Thursday. From what our friend described it sounded like the perfect little experience! Heading to the cafe we were all excited and actually concerned about our hour time slot as we thought we’d be so engrossed in the experience we wouldn’t want to leave! However, our faces dropped once we realised the mistake we had made. The cafe was full of children, running around, aggravating the cats, and the laziest parents you’d ever seen on the planet! I get that it’s an exciting experience for children also, but my god, these children were ferral! As 4 adults sitting wanting to enjoy the experience, we found instead we experienced children screaming, getting in the face of the cats. We saw a cat on a tall sleeping pole which we could reach, so made a fuss of the sleeping cat. A flurry of children came and then surrounded our table and got to far within our personal space. We found ourselves repeatedly having to kindly ask the children to leave the cats alone as they seemed fed up and kept hiding under our chairs, which didn’t stop these children from lifting my coat and bag to get to the poor ginger cat wanting to hide! My friend went to the toilet and saw a boy with a cat toy and the boy was shoving the toy in the cats face not even millimetres away from its nose and repeatedly kept saying “kitty”! my friend asked the boy not to do that as it wasn’t kind, which as you could of guessed, fell on deaf ears. Now, our experience was at no fault at all of the people working on that date, we even saw the young lady running the floor telling several children to give the cats space. My partner made a point to us of the £5 entry fee we would have to pay and was quite annoyed at the fact he had essentially paid £8.50 to not actually see or experience any cats, as most were hiding and the few out were being harassed. Its safe to say we left completely disappointed by the experience and would not recommend to anyone who wants a nice experience to go on a Saturday, unless they change their booking rules to no under 13 yr olds!! We left well before our hour time slot ended.

My review is purely based on the experience I had.

In regards to the actual service, the staff were very friendly and attentive. I did feel sorry for the one girl on the floor, she seemed to be doing everything. From greeting people and seeing them to their table, to seeing people away, cleaning tables, serving food, taking orders all whilst trying to check the animals for their welfare. Which must of been extremely difficult on this day. The menu is very basic, and I think honestly aimed towards children. I would like to visit again but I would only be doing this on a week day during school hours! Experienced little to no cats, so essentially as a table paid over £40 to sit inside a noisy cafe for 30 minutes.

EDIT FURTHER TO OWNERS REPLY:

I have changed the rating from a 1 star to a 3 star, I do agree, the fault of our visit was by no means the fault of the staff! All staff were wonderful and very attentive.

I do follow your Facebook page and I am pleased to see as of last night, 21/01/24, Purrr Cafe’s policy regarding children has been changed, and all children must remain seated at all times, with the exception of monitored play during quieter times.

Unfortunately, whilst your own children may be perfectly responsible and respectful of the animals, sadly, this is not the case for the general public children of that day we visited.

Wishing this Cafe all the best, I just wanted to advise people who may be introverts, people without children/dislike children, easily overwhelmed/over stimulated and people who like their own personal space, that it wouldn’t be the case and probably not the best establishment and experience for some people. However, now the policy has been changed regarding children, it may be different to my...

Lovely place, but here's just a few things about our experience that might help in future :)

We made a reservation 1 1/2 weeks prior for 12 pm on a Saturday. We arrived at about 11:55 am and saw that there was already a big queue of maybe ten+ people waiting outside. It wasn't quite clear what you're meant to do and whether those people had a reservation as well or were just waiting to get a spot. So we asked them, they told us that they all had reservations too, so we waited in line. After about ten minutes, we were allowed inside, but were told by the staff that there is an entrance fee of £5 per person which caught us off guard. To be fair, if you search for it on their website, it does mention an entrance fee and it is also mentioned in the booking confirmation but is very hidden and at the bottom of a big text. I do understand the reasoning behind the fee but it would be better if this would be communicated more clearly. We were seated and our orders were quickly taken by a friendly staff member. I should also mention that even though we booked 1 1/2 weeks prior, because we were the last people in line, we didn't get a good seat close to any cats, so to anyone making a reservation, make sure you arrive at least 15 minutes early to get a good spot but wrap up warm if it's cold, because you'll have to wait outside. The cafe overall looks cute, cozy, clean and is a bit on the small side. It was however a little chilly when seated by the door, which is made worse by confused customers trying to get in with and without reservation. Multiple times while we were eating, there were people asking to come in and one woman in particular with her family was turned away twice (with a reservation) and told to wait outside while others came in after her and some were even let in to wait in the warmth. The system could be made less frustrating by a simple sign outfront informing any potential customer to please queue outside until after change over, which happens every hour and with a reservation only.

Even though it's a small venue, our two drinks took around 20+ minutes to arrive and one bowl of loaded nachos took 30+ minutes, which is long considering that you only have a 60 minutes stay and we ordered as soon as we were seated. Food and drinks were very nice. I think for the future it would be great if each table would have napkins available for dishes that you have to eat with your hands or would be served with the food, especially since we are also touching cats. The nachos were amazing but we ended up eating them with our coffee spoons because there was so much sauce. :D The cats were the obvious highlight, very cute and of different ages and breeds, most of them sleeping or staying in their spot during our time slot, but we didn't mind. For anyone who is on the introverted side or doesn't like people encroaching your personal space or the other way around: if you want to get closer to the cats, you might have to get pretty close to other people's tables unless you get lucky if one comes to you, or if you're seated by one, though again if you're seated by one, people most probably will have to come very close to you. During our stay we felt a little rushed, not able to really relax and take our time to enjoy the experience. Also waiting for our orders for so long, watching everyone else finish their food and drinks didn't help. When it was our time to leave, the change over system felt disorganised with new customers coming in while old customers were trying to leave and others stil paying their bills. Overall the experience was good, albeit a tad steep, considering that we paid almost £30 for admission, two hot drinks and a snack during our short stay, with only little interaction with the cats. If some of the mentioned issues would be addressed, the experience would be a...

Before we even entered the cafe, we were delayed for around 10 minutes as the previous customers were still in there. This then made us late when we entered (takes time as each party must go in separately, hear the rules and sanitise their hands). You must remain seated for the first 30 minutes (which varies between each session) before being allowed to get up. If the cats are sleeping you are not allowed to pet them (as to not wake them up, although this very rule was broken by one of the employees). The food is average for the price you pay. You must remain seated until everyone has eaten their food, but as previously mentioned this varies depending on who you’re in the session with. I came in with a party of 4, however another party had 2 young kids, who were very slow to eat. It wasn’t until around 50 minutes later after the initial intake into the cafe were we allowed to get up from the seats and pet the cats. Which even then, was rather rushed. I would not recommend this place on the basis that you end up spending more time sitting around than you do petting the cats, which I assume most people who enter the cafe come for the cats, not for the food. The staff seemed rather hostile. I think making yourself a sandwich and walking out onto the streets until you find a stray cat would be a better experience than this place. Edit (since they replied): considering you cannot even spell my name properly when it’s right in front of you spelt correctly I think it reflects the level of attitude you have towards customers who give you honest replies. The problem itself wasn’t with waiting for everyone to finish, it was with the amount of time they took to finish, which when we entered it was stated that half an hour would be allocated to eating and drinking , which was obviously not the case as the children there took a longer period of time to eat. That being said, I don’t remember the exact time we were there petting the cats, but it was for a shorter duration than expected, especially considering that there was a lot of people there. We ended up leaving past the time slot, just like what had happened with the last customers before we entered. I never said I was looking for a high end meal, I simply stated the food is average for the price you pay, well because it is. I’m sorry this comment upset you enough to go on a rant about where your food is sourced from. I felt, alongside those who went with me, that a member of staff was passive aggressive. And to say “you were smiling and nodding back” is just called not causing a scene, only because staff is being passive aggressive does not mean the customers are going to...