A Sanctuary Cafe — Restaurant in Boston

There are 3 separate aspects of this cat cafe (cat lounge, cafe, bookstore) and each requires a separate review.

cat lounge: The core service of this business. I visited at 11:30am, which is not normally an active hour for cats.

TL;DR: a lot of thoughts and efforts have been devoted for the wellbeing of the cats and guests, however an over-restrictive guest contact policy has severely limited positive interactions between the cats and guests and has made the cats grown weary of visitors.

The cat lounge is an absolutely wonderful place for the cats. Lots of sun-bathing spots, place to rest and hide if grown weary of people, and a variety of stimulating items and environments (high passes, blanket fort, BirdTV) to serve the cats' needs. The lounge is staffed and supervised almost constantly to address any issues should something happen.

The place is accommodating to visitors. I was very surprised on how clean and odorless the place was, especially considering the number of cats within. I cannot smell any cat odor, nor can I discover any clumps of loose fur or cat litter anywhere around the place. The staff states that the place is deep-cleaned every morning, and I struggle to find any other explanation that can keep this place much cleaner than an average household with just 1 cat. Staff is very friendly, helpful, and informative.

The lounge is a bit small and cramped, and throughout my stay I have to watch myself not getting in other people's way. I think the lack of space stresses the cat a little bit as well, as I find some of the cats staring at other cats for a long time (a somewhat aggressive posture between cats, usually over purrsonal space). I do not observe any other aggressive posturing between cats, though.

However, the most disappointing aspect I found about my visit was the attitude of the cats toward visitors. Cats are clean and healthy, albeit a bit sedated. Possibly due to my time of visit, but I believe there is more to that, as I found cats that are silently observing the entire time, and much of the freshly awoken cats won't engage with guests, toys, or any of the other stimuli either (except for a young ginger, who I believe is either Benji or Simon). I attempted to approach the cats with slow blinks and offer my hand for them to smell as a greeting, but much of the cats simply ignored me and won't even twitch their nose to smell me. I observed a guest who pet a cat without cat's approval (possibly out of frustration of the non-engagement as well?), and after a short while the cat erupted with a yell and swiped at the guest. I believe that this indicates the cats have grown tired of the non-stop stream of people and their attempts to engage, and they view us the visitors as nothing but nuisances that frequent their habitat.

In the current state, I would not book the cat lounge again, because I was only able to pet a cat for a very limited amount of time, and that the cats do not welcome my presence. I have no prior experience with a cat cafe so I cannot offer much insight beyond my visit. However, I would suggest that the management seek suggestions from people who has experienced other cat cafe. In addition, after taking the cat's daily food intake into account, I suggest that the management provide a ration of cat treats to each guest to offer to the cats. Food is the most important motivator and it would reinforce a positive sentiment toward guest strangers.

cafe: The cafe is decent with a standard offering of drinks and pastry. I ordered an iced matcha latte, a croissant, and a tiramisu, and everything is satisfactory.There is limited seating inside the cafe, plan for a carry out.

bookstore: The bookstore features a curated selection of books on all topics, ranging from cats, to Emily Dickinson, to cats, to Bostonian history, to cats, to cosmology, to cats. The ratio between the font-sizes of authors to titles is generally delightfully low. I picked up the End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by K. Mack, Play with Your Cat by M. Delgato, and You Like it...

I want to give a fair review. I’m happy that Beacon Hill has a cat cafe, but my personal experience was mixed. It felt a bit like a supervised parental visit. There were rules around the cats which is to be expected. But the rule around not patting a sleeping cat and never wake a cat I found befuddling. Most of the cats were sleeping so we found ourselves in a room just sitting with the cats while the staff watched us. I have two cats that I own now and I’ve never known them to be upset with a gentle pat while they are napping. My suggestion here would be to allow guests to pat sleeping cats but maybe just remind them to be gentle.

I read some reviews after the fact to see if we were alone in this experience and we were not. Other reviews reflected how we felt after our own visit. The reviews also said the price 6mths ago was $35.00. Today it was $48.00 so at one point we paid money to just sit in the room with strangers and look at the cats while the staff watched us. After some time a few did come into the room so it did get better.

My suggestion would be to give people a little space to bond with the cats and get a feel for them. You mentioned you have security cameras all around so you could always just have staff come by if you see something you don’t like. I lived in Boston for 12yrs so I understand that maybe you are being extra cautious but it’s expensive to enter so I would imagine people would generally respect the rules.

In the beginning there were only a few people and us but by the end I counted 9 people so it was a bit crowded. My mom had made a comment that she was glad we were leaving as it was a bit crowded. My suggestion here would be to limit the number of people at one time since it’s a very small space.

Finally; The 5 page waiver that said it needed to be submitted 48 hours in advance when we had just booked the night before felt weird, but the owner did say that disclaimer was put in back when there was a waiting list but it should be taken off the website as a condition since there was no waiting list anymore. I have kids so I’ve signed more than my fair share of waivers over the years. My suggestion would be to put it on one page and either make it a paper copy or on a tablet that guests sign upon arrival. My 85yr old mother had trouble and hadn’t filled it out correctly the first time. Since you ask people to arrive 15 minutes beforehand they could sign it then.

Overall, I understand what you want to achieve and I think it’s a great goal. I think it’s a new business so in time it will likely come together. The thing you want your guests to take away though is how adorable the cats are and how welcome they felt during...

TLDR: happy kitties, wonderfully kind staff, and delicious drinks ! This is such a sweet little cafe. I adore cats, and I've always wanted to go to a cat cafe, but have always hesitated because there are some out there that aren't ethical. Knowing this, my husband researched cat cafes in Boston to surprise me for my birthday, and found this one! And I'm happy he did! You can really tell the staff and the owner love their kitties, and the cats all seem relaxed (and lots are playful!) Aaaaaand they're all rescues! When you go in to see the kitties, they give you a pretty solid run down of cat behavior and the best ways to interact with the kitties so you can enjoy your time while respecting the cats. I loved that, since it set a level of respect for the cats and helps them from being overstimulated. Everyone I saw interacting with the cats were super respectful of the kitties (letting the sleeping cats sleep, not forcing cuddles, etc ) and I think its definitely in part due to the staff taking time to set expectations and educate about kitties (in very kind and informative ways!) They also have you sanitize your hands and put shoe coverings on to keep the area clean and keep the kitties healthy. All the staff we interacted with were super sweet and passionate about kitties. I usually have a lot of social anxiety, but because of the atmosphere and the kindness of the staff I felt very much at ease. I felt comfortable asking questions (usually about the cat's names, and what they're like) and the staff member I asked was happy to answer. (The fact that the staff knew the cats so well, their temperaments, what they like and don't like, is also a big green flag for me). The icing on the cake is everything else they got going on! The cafe is great. I usually don't like cold milk teas, so the fact that I loved the one I got says a lot! I didn't get to try any of the desserts (I was distracted haha) but they had the cutest cat macrons that we bought a couple of! The place is adorable in terms of atmosphere. They also sell books that the (I believe all that have been read/recommend by staff). Lots are cat themed but there's a good mix in there! They'll even emboss the book for you which is so cool and just sweetens the experience! Cats, tea, and books... It's all you...