Ziggy's Cat Lounge — Restaurant in Bremerton

Had to delete my first review due to account issues but here it is:

Do not recommend. Booked a visit with my kids. Didn’t realize my 4.5 year wouldn’t be able to go, I wasn’t paying that close enough attention. That’s on me as the only cat cafe near me doesn’t have an age limit. I had interpreted the waiver as not allowing kids to be unsupervised. Dad got called out last minute to work. He would’ve helped with the little kids so it wouldn’t have been an issue. Since one person was going to be allowed at a time, I was only going to pay for one adult ticket. He wasn’t available so I had three kids by myself. Rather than try to work with me and be empathetic that I made a human mistake, and try to come up with a solution (rescheduling possibly?) the owner was rude and condescending. She was ready to say no to me by the time I arrived. Said she wasn’t a baby sitter (that was never my expectation, I was hoping to take the older kids in and let the baby just stay in the car seat in the cafe so I could supervise them for five minutes and get their cat fix as they are missing theirs) and said no refunds. Also super disingenuous to say I asked to let the kids in the cat section without me, never asked that. I asked to let the baby stay in the car seat. If the owner wasn’t comfortable she could say that, it would be understandable? but instead rolled her eyes and said I’m not a babysitter. There’s a more tactful way to approach it. She didn’t try to work with me or Come up with an alternative. Super disappointed my kids were in tears by the time we hit the pavement. Bummer.

Update to the response: What’s wild is that someone that works in customer service doesn’t try to work with their customers. I’m not blaming you for the mistakes I’ve made, I’m blaming you for your reaction to it. As the owner, you’re in a position to offer grace and kindness. That wasn’t the path that was chosen. We’ve never been here before. We’re not from here. Visiting while on a break from school. Found a place and booked online. I don’t use social media, never looked up this place’s info to realize that the 5 year old part was a hard limit. Yup, not reading the age limits is on me. I get that. But the fact that the response below is so strongly worded is what I mean. . . Condescending and rude when it was human error. Not trying to find a happy medium at all. Again. Don’t recommend. Absolutely terrible approach to customer service. Someone paid for something, at least try to honor that and find a solution that...

I’ve been to Ziggys cat lounge around 5x in the past year, and always have a nice time! We’ve been looking to adopt a cat to meet our 8 year old kitty, and we haven’t found our match yet but we just sort of pop in and out casually with a reservation, and haven’t been super intentional and serious with our search . They always have new kitties cycling in and out and getting adopted quickly so if you do connect with one of the cats try to get your application in as soon as you can. The resident cats are super sweet and always fun to interact with, and the team that runs the business is always super kind, and you can tell they’re really passionate about their work!

My one complaint is something out of their control- which is that I do wish you could pay more to reserve time slots for your group only. 3 of the times I’ve gone, there have been small children that don’t really have boundaries yet. I’ve been hanging out with a cat and had kids almost crawl into my lap trying to get to the cat im hanging out with which is awkward and eventually gets frustrating because it freaks the cats out and nobody wants someone in their personal space. It’s really more on the parents to teach their kids about personal space and respecting strangers, and that’s not Ziggys fault. The Ziggys team explicitly gives you guidelines before you enter the room every time about respecting the cats and being gentle, and it’s up to the parents to actually enforce that. It would be great if they’d add an upcharge where you can reserve a slot for just your party, or keep kids hours to earlier in the day maybe so there’d be an adults only period later in the evening where you’re not having to ward off little kids that are desperately trying to interact with the same cat you are. There are always many cats- so why this keeps happening is just kids being kids and wanting the one cat they can’t have, instead of the 4 that are within their reach. It’s a kitty cafe so it’s really not a big deal, they’re for everyone. But I wish parents taught their kids more about respecting the cats and respecting others because that does dampen the experience when it happens.

The cat lounge though is great. My husband and I have talked with the team sometimes and it sounds like they’ve had a lot of success getting cats adopted out to loving homes. Really awesome business and happy to support them...

THIS IS A NEUTRAL REVIEW:

I am posting that I recommend them cause the place is adorable and the cats are very happy. I, myself, as a customer had a slightly negative experience.

I walked in hoping to get spots to see some cats, I was told there were absolutely no more spots available to go in and see them. Was recommended a card to come back tomorrow. I took a moment to look online and find two open spots, so I booked it. I walked up to the counter and the miss was a little frazzled that I had found it. No worries, I’m just glad I can go in. Because there were only two spots, my twin sister left. Only for another customer to walk in and ask if they can go in to see the cats. I overheard “oh there’s one more spot and it looks like it’s for you.” I was slightly sad because I was just told I couldn’t go in and another customer after me, is told they can. Also including that I had to take initiative myself to get a spot inside, I wondered if I was a problem.

The conversations about adoption were vague and again I was referred online only when it seemed the cats were getting adopted left and right. There were two kittens I’m smitten over and it feels hard to maintain a conversation of getting actual info when they only wanted to refer me to someone else, like I have to seek this information myself.

I am still on the hunt for a new additional fur baby for my family but unfortunately don’t think I’ll be returning here to find that treasure, but the humane society themselves. Being a business owner I try really hard to remain inclusive and kind, making sure every person felt welcome just the same. I’m sure a lot of it was not intentional, just turned out that way. I wish this location all the best and that all patrons don’t feel as I did. I honestly felt off and slightly unwelcome, I’m reading reviews about how people are getting helped filled out forms for adoption and people can get checked in right away. But I was rejected flat out, it’s...