CuppaPug — Restaurant in Salford

I recently visited the puppy café with my child, and we were both really looking forward to the experience. While the idea of the café is lovely and we did enjoy spending time with the dogs, unfortunately, aspects of the visit left us feeling quite uncomfortable.

One of the male staff members came across as rather rude. From the moment we arrived, I felt we were treated differently from other customers. There seemed to be an unspoken expectation that everyone must order a drink. We had just come from brunch, so we weren’t looking to order anything. However, when this staff member came around asking others for their orders, he gave me a cold, disapproving look when I declined. It felt very judgmental and unwelcoming.

Eventually, I felt so out of place that I ordered some dog sausages just to ease the tension. It also seemed like the staff paid more attention to guests who had ordered something, which was disappointing.

When I gave the dogs the sausages (as expected, they all rushed over), they ended up pushing each other and grabbing the treats straight from the cup, leaving no chance to hand-feed them. While I understand this kind of chaos can happen, what really upset me was noticing the same male staff member smirking and laughing with another customer while covering his face—as if mocking the situation. It made me feel incredibly self-conscious and unwelcome.

On a more positive note, one of the female staff members was genuinely kind and attentive. She made a real effort to help my toddler engage with the dogs, which we really appreciated. I didn’t catch her name, but she wasn’t the blonde lady.

Overall, the concept of the café is great, but the experience could be much better with more consistent and respectful customer service.

EDIT: RESPONSE TO OWNER’S COMMENT: While you may say there’s no expectation to place an order, based on your reviews, it’s clear that many customers have felt otherwise. There seems to be a noticeable shift in attitude—and at times, a sense of being looked down upon—when someone chooses not to order.

As for the laughter, I think most people can recognise the difference between friendly banter and a moment where they’re being mocked. In this case, one of the staff members covered his face while smirking at another customer, which gave a clear impression that I was the subject of the joke. It didn’t feel light-hearted—it felt dismissive and uncomfortable.

It’s a real shame, because the café itself is a great concept and a really cool space. Unfortunately, the experience is being let down by staff behaviour. I genuinely hope there’s either better training provided in customer service or more thoughtful hiring decisions made, because the current approach doesn’t reflect the potential the...

I was really looking forward to going here as I’ve been to such brilliant animal cafes before, but I was left incredibly disappointed. After paying already £15 per person to get inside the building, you would expect the staff to treat you with equal respect, this is wrong. The staff will only interact with you, and bring the pugs over to you if you purchase extra treats for the dogs (which surely should be given in moderation?). I ordered a smoothie, then they gave it to someone else and took it away from them, I eventually got a smoothie (bearing in mind it was the wrong flavour and I had to remind them I had ordered) 15 minutes before the end of the session, do they expect people to down their drinks- seriously?! There was only about 15 people there and half didn’t get anything! One staff member in particular was incredibly rude, and I’ve seen her description mentioned in other negative reviews on here, she was the blonde at the session yesterday and oh my god does she need customer service training! She was so rude when I asked her if she knew when my smoothie was arriving as there was no one behind the cafe and other people had their drinks already, she was constantly giving dirty looks and then she came and practically dragged a sleeping pug off of my lap 10 minutes before the session was scheduled to finish? So why were there no pugs in the room for the last 10 minutes? I definitely think you need to retrain this staff member as we clearly aren’t the only ones who have had a negative experience with her, and she really put a damper on what should have been a lovely experience for my boyfriend’s birthday and we were definitely both left disappointed at the customer service as we had paid to be there so should have been welcomed.

Response to the owner: I ordered my smoothie when the session started, it took 40 minutes for them to make it after they gave it to someone else, and this staff member, the young, blonde female, has been mentioned in several reviews for her bad customer service. The pugs didn’t come out for 10 minutes, and then they gradually dwindled down and then all of them were gone 10 minutes before it ended, that’s not 50 minutes with them. I will be emailing you, but it was worth me leaving a review so others can know what to expect, and not get let down...

First time visit unfortunately for us wasn’t what we expected. The overall facilities aren’t too bad there’s options for drinks and light bites whilst you’re there including choices for your pups which I thought was quite cute. There’s also a small ball pit for the pups but other than a regular box of toys you’d have at home, that was really as far as it went. We took our FrenchPug for the first time and unfortunately another FrenchPug of theirs didn’t take to her very well had a snap at her and had to be put in another room which wasn’t what we was expecting at all, it all happened as soon as all the pugs entered at once and considering the pups are out with the public most days in the same place we never expected that to happen. We bought a pupachino for our girl but sadly she was too shy to try and drink it as all the other pups jumped on it which in turn really put our puppy back whilst still being on her journey to meeting others like her. I’m not too sure if me and my Fiancé went for different reasons to everybody else but for us a hot drink and a light snack was well and truly out the question as we was too busy keeping an eye on how their pugs interacted with ours as it wasn’t the friendliest. Our puppy is quite boisterous and playful and although it may have just been a playground situation for the pups it wasn’t a positive for us as first time visitors. I’m a support worker and I did notice that this place wasn’t wheelchair friendly or Family friendly. Overall an hour of pure anxiety from all three of us and I think if we was to go again we would strongly consider weather it’s worth stressing our...