Java Whiskers Cat Café White City — Restaurant in London

I went for kitten yoga. The cats are adorable— they seemed quite big for “kittens”, which, considering the price, should be noted. Not quite as promised. And considering the markup, if you’re hesitating between adult cat and kitten room, you might as well go for the adults. That said, they’re very playful and are present throughout the entire class and after.

The instructor was lovely and competent and the class itself very relaxing and just challenging enough, and very cute with the cats running around.

-1 point for the fact that the mats were crowded together— multiple times during the session, I touched or was touched by another attendee due to the lack of space. There isn’t a hand’s width in between the mats. You will have to consider the movements of others and reposition for some of the poses to ensure everyone fits comfortably, which takes you out of the experience a bit.

There should be four less people in the class, or poses should require less space. I understand trying to get a full room, but not at the detriment of space to actually get into and relax into the pose, at almost £50 a session.

-1 for the price. It’s a nice experience, but not worth £45. The yoga is great. But you’re paying extra for a half hour with the cats. The rules say to only play with toys provided by the cafe, but none were provided. Had I not seen a basket of toys on my way out, I wouldn’t have known they were there to begin with. When I brought it up to staff as I was leaving, not even an “oops” or an explanation. I can understand being tired at the end of a workday. This seems like an important oversight, considering interacting with cats is half the point of not just going to a regular yoga class for half the price, and a quick acknowledgment of that would have been nice.

The cats ended up playing with a little white spring, which seemed to be made of metal. Not sure that’s the safest for them. So both the cats and the guests lose out due to toys not being made available.

The price also includes a cup of tea and a croissant or cupcake. A nice snack, but worth maybe £7? Not to mention no sugar or honey was provided, so I had to leave the room to request some in the main cafe area. Naturally, the cats get curious about open doors, so one has to be careful not to let one out. Would be simpler to just bring out sweeteners with the tray of tea options.

Overall, a lovely experience but a bit steep— everything feels like a bit of a compromise. You make do with the space you have to do yoga in and try not to spoon your neighbor, and you make do with whatever’s on hand to play with the kittens you came to see. For £45. Which is fine if you know that going in. Hence my review.

Overall, a fair experience that could be improved on. Cat cafes in London are quite expensive compared to those in other big capitals I’ve lived in. They should ensure the experience is worth...

Less than perfect date day out :(

I’ve had my eye on the Java Whiskers Cat Lounge in Westfield after advertising on instagram notified of the new venue opening on the 31st December 2022. This was intended to be a lovely date! My partner and I enjoy the company of our b&w short haired feline who is excitable, curious, and always planning something; often, her next chance to next escape!

I booked a visit to the Java Whiskers afternoon tea on Sunday 8th January for a visit later the same day at 3pm for 1 hour and 25 minutes. We prepped excitedly after reviewing stories on Instagram and recent posts from recent visitors to the venue.

We arrived 2 minutes late to the venue after struggling to find the location which is outside and not inside the shopping centre as first thought. We were welcomed by the 4 person staffed check-in desk and told to take a seat in the lobby whilst the staff made arrangements for our table. Once we entered the cat lounge, the seating area and chairs were populated by a few other parties and adorable sleeping cats! The one cat we recognised from Instagram was so shy but quickly warmed to the orange and purple fishing bobble toy. I would say the cats appeared well looked after.

This was the end of the joy though. After a 30 minute wait, other parties were finishing their tea sets, and we had not even been attended to, except to be told our booking was almost over. This was an error on the servers part, but she only accepted her mistake when we showed her our appointment card placed on the table with our names on it. We still had an hour of our booking left at this point and only 1 pot of tea between two people. we began to check reviews whilst waiting and saw many similar to our current experience with common discussion points for many of these reviews.

To say the least the venue did in fact look like what it said it would but unfortunately, the service was non existent with the staff showing more attentiveness to the cats than to us in the back left corner. We were left feeling completely overlooked even after we reminded the staff we were there 30mins in. They still needed further reminding at the 50min mark.

We waited a total of 1 hour until eventually our food arrived, 1 afternoon tea set between two people for £89. Our 1 pot of tea had already gone cold, but the scorching hot microwaved mixed vegetable filled pastry (you could tell as the pastry had gone limp) was an utter nightmare. In fewer words, I was so unwell the next day I had to stop urgently to use facilities whilst travelling to work and was exhausted and poorly the next day. I felt like I had food poisoning!

Overall, the lounge was 7/10 while the service was 3/10. We should have just had afternoon tea at home with...

Saturday 13 July visit time around 2-2:15pm - This was our first time visiting a cat cafe and we were so upset by what we witnessed from other customers …actually not real customers but content creators. There was a table of two women and a child and it became very obvious they were not cats lovers or knew anything about cat behaviours. How I & the rest of the others in the cafe knew this? They were loudly complaining about how disgusting, repulsive it was, mainly the older woman. She told the younger woman ‘this was the worst collab you have ever done.’ How she regrets being there and wouldn’t have come if they knew what it was like. Every time a cat went near her she kept jumping, overreacting, shouting at them to get away and kicking her legs out. Luckily she didn’t hurt one but it was close. That didn’t stop her from making the young child pose for photos though. She kept saying this is for the content, what we have to for photos but that it’s awful, horrible etc over and over again. The younger woman kept leaving the room and hardly sat at the table. After a little while the older one (after she gobbled her food - I assume they got it for free as it was an influencer thing) complained to a staff member how they were misled about the experience being a relaxing one and she thought they would have access to the kitten room. The child that was with them was 6 years and the email they received from someone asking if they wanted to do a collab didn’t state any age restrictions. The staff told her that they could have 5 minutes in the kitten lounge so they left the main room. However when we left at 3pm we saw them leaving at the same time? Which I find outrageous! Only over 10 year olds are allowed in the kitten room so is it one rule for paying customers and another for content creators?? Please clarify? I understand in this day & age social media marketing is important and having influencers advertise your brand is key but please do your research on these wannabe celebrities and invite true cat lovers not just greedy evil people in it for the money only. There was also another family with a young daughter who was not behaving well. The mum & dad had the backs to the room and just left their daughter to it. She looked about 7ish and kept antagonising the cats, she was swiped at and hissed at a few times but kept irritating them while they were sleeping. She was waving toys in their face and they were clearly not interested so she got frustrated and just threw one of the string toys at one. You need to have a staff member in the room at all times to avoid these situations. Your rules are not being adhered to! I will be sending this message to Furry Ears Rescue and the...