Mac Tabby Cat Cafe - Charlotte — Restaurant in Charlotte

Hello all! If there has ever been a hard review for me to write, it is this one. I have been debating it for days, but I decided it’s a big enough issue that I should follow through with it. I’d like to preface by saying that me and my boyfriend have come to the Charlotte Mac Tabby location for 3+ years. We have been loyal customers. It’s a date we always look forward to and count the days down on!

Last Wednesday I had a laparoscopic ovarian cystectomy with the addition of a surprise laparoscopic uterosacral nerve ablation. I decided to book a one-hour kitty date for me and my boyfriend, who goes to college in Virginia and came to visit me during this difficult time of my life, for that Saturday to get me out of the house. Oh boy! I woke up that morning feeling the worst I had since the surgery, it was rough but I decided the date would be worth it. Or so I thought.

For those used to the Charlotte location, you know there is a troublesome flight of stairs leading up to the door. About 20-30. I had told my boyfriend to stay behind me in case I fall or become weak, as this was the first time I had been out of the house since surgery as well as the first flight of stairs I walked up. For some reason, a worker of Mac Tabby (white, middle-aged+, average height male) who was sweeping the area above the stairs decided it would be the perfect time to make side comments about how “it must be such a workout going up those stairs” for me. We did not respond at first, as I was more concerned with not tripping over my own feet, however; he did not let this stop him. He continued making the same comment 2 or 3 more times about the stairs being “such a workout” for me. Once I got to the top of the stairs I informed him I had surgery, but rather than apologize he doubled down and said once more how rough it must be to walk up some stairs with a sarcastic tone. Wow, how kind.

I tried to not let it bother me at first, although later I lost that battle and brought it up to a worker who seemed to understand where I was coming from and decided to get the owner involved. Once the owner came over she did not seem as understanding. At all. Right off the bat, how I felt was dismissed by her and she made excuses for him saying they say that to each other all the time and there’s no way he could’ve known I had surgery. That’s the point! You are coworkers, you know each other. He does NOT KNOW ME! Or what I’ve been through!! I am highly disappointed that it took me showing this lady my stitches and bruises for her to act as if she knew where I was coming from. Bottom line, don’t make comments about your customers you do with your coworkers. Do not make comments with them, especially ones that can be taken as very rude and demeaning. You do not know what people struggle with every day. Some people have disabilities, and climbing those stairs may be the hardest part of their day- don’t be a jackass about it! Don’t make it harder! I don’t care if you make comments to each other at work, be careful who you say that shit to because I am not your coworker I am a paying customer who crawled out of her bed after a very rough surgery to try to have a better day. This experience demonstrates a lack of management understanding. Which is upsetting since me and my boyfriend really loved the experience this place brought us.

Needless to say, me and my boyfriend will not be back to this location. We will try our luck at other locations and pray we don’t have workers make comments about our body there. This has been a disappointing experience, to say the least.

Their drinks are pretty good though and the cats are innocent in all this....

This place is awesome!

Allergy Warning! They have an air freshener on in the cat room and they use catnip with the cats. (I will say that while the air freshener was strong, it was wasn't overpowering)

I took my roommate for her birthday. I'm super allergic to cats and catnip so we don't have pets in the house.

She loved it. There is a separate room away from the cafe but you can see into the cat room.

The bathroom was clean and was big enough for people with movement issues. If you can make it up the flight of stairs, you'll be fine. There was also a bar next to the toilet for those that need it.

The cafe is mostly drinks but they do have a few snacks. It seemed a little pricey, but compaired to other animal cafe's I've been to they were about average.

The people who work there are friendly and helpful but not pushy or invasive. They answered all of our questions and knew a lot about each cat.

I was happy to see that they made sure to stay in the room with the cats when there were people inside. 2 workers were there and one would always stay inside. It was clear they were making sure that no one hurt the cats. They were gentle but firm with the little girl who was there at the same time as we were but who thought tugging on their tails would be a good way to get their attention. I was very impressed by how the employee handled that situation.

The cat area itself is really clean. REALLY REALLY CLEAN. As someone who has cat allergies and was going as a birthday surprise for my roommate I was excessively surprised by how the place was kept up. Kitty litter is not in the public area, and none of the furniture has cat hair just sitting in little piles. As far as I could tell nothing was dusty and the room was cool. There were plently of chairs, cat toys, and things to play with.

I would definitely recommend this place...

While on vacation to North Carolina, our party of 8 visited Mac Tabby on Friday, June 30th. We had a WONDERFUL experience other than the lady who waited on us at our first visit - she was surprisingly a little nasty. EVERYBODY else was totally GREAT! We had been told not to bother with reservations which totally turned out to not be true. MAKE RESERVATIONS!!! ;-) After getting a reservation then arriving later the same day, we went to the kitty lounge. It's a 10 person limit in the lounge so our party of 8 (plus two others) was easily accomodated.

We did not get any food but the drinks we had were awesome. All 4 kids and 4 adults were super impressed with the drinks!

Our one hour long segment with the cats in the lounge area was soooo sweet and yes - therapeutic! The atmosphere was totally chill, from the staff to the kitties. A couple of staff members were in the lounge and were very helpful with the kids engaging the kitties and answering all the questions from everybody. The cats varied in type, age, color and disposition but without kittens (waaah) and yes, they are available for adoption. The cat visit segment was just so great, I cannot put it into words.

The only (very small) problem that we had on the day we visited (6/30/2023) had nothing to do with Mac Tabby Cat Cafe nor the sort of nasty lady - there is a LOT of construction going on around the Mac Tabby location and hardly any parking available nearby. HOWEVER, there is a nice free-parking(!!!) garage a very short 1/2 block away - so short that I didn't even work up a sweat on a 93 degree F day! Bottom line: Yes, we ALLL loved Mac Tabby! Yes, we ALLL heartily recommend Mac Tabby! And YES! We will be back again on our next visit to...