Hawaii Cat Cafe — Restaurant in Honolulu

My husband and I came to the cafe this past Saturday to play with the kittens and inquire about potentially adopting our first kitten together. Upon visiting, we were greeted by the Cat Cafe's super friendly/ helpful staff and a room full of very cute kittens/ cats. We quickly found an adorable, loveable, cuddly grey kitten that we fell in love with and could see ourselves welcoming to our home. A staff member gave us an application and informed us that we would hear about the status of our application in three business days. During this time, my husband and I anxiously awaited our phone call and continued to grow in love for our potential new kitten. We began kitten proofing our home, learning about how to properly care for our new pet, buying him things, and preparing to spoil him to no end! Our excitement could not be contained, so my husband called the Cafe with a status update on Tuesday. The staff member who answered told him that our kitten was no longer at the Cafe. We assumed he may have been taken to The Humane Society to begin getting ready to be taken home with us; however, we were informed that he was already adopted by another family and the staff member told us to email management (Ms. Washburn). Upon doing so, it was confirmed that our kitten was in fact adopted by another family simply due to the fact that we stated we were UNDECIDED on whether or not we would rehome the cat if we moved off of the island (my husband is in the military). My issue lies in the fact that if there was a cause for concern in our application, Ms. Washburn could have simply called me using the phone number on our application and I would have been happy to further explain any of our answers provided. Because, since meeting the kitten, we have already grown to love him and researched how we would bring him back to the mainland with us. I, like many negative reviews I have read, do not agree nor appreciate the fact that when applications come in, they are disregarded unfairly due to answers she may not agree with. Many applicants intend to raise their cats in a loving home. Though, it should be understood that circumstances do arise and management cannot be so controlling that they micromanage each outcome once the cats...

My kids and I had a fantastic time at Hawaii Cat Cafe the other day! It felt safe (COVID-wise) with everyone wearing masks, mandatory hand sanitizer, and only 8 people allowed in the cat room at a time, so there was plenty of room for social distancing. I was so moved when I first came a few years ago, and I've been meaning to write a review ever since.. Then I was equally impressed on my second visit so I figured it's long past time to tell the world about it:

The first time I visited, the owner Cindy was there. I overheard a little girl, brimming with excitement while telling her "this is the first time I ever got to see a cat in real life!" and then begged her mom to come back again soon. I realized then what a valuable service Cindy & her team are providing for our community by rescuing & adopting cats while giving people who can't have pets a safe, clean, comfortable space to enjoy their company. The little girl had wondered aloud if their claws could be removed, and Cindy gently explained that declawing actually hurts them, and talked about other cat-care facts like how important it is for all kitties to be spayed & neutered.

On this visit a few days ago, I talked to one of the employees named Hannah and found that she's been working there since they opened, and she remembers almost every single cat who's been adopted (unless they were lucky enough to be adopted after just a day or two.) Both Cindy & Hannah described several of the kitties in detail- saying things like "this one is Charley, he's super sweet" and "that one is Trinity, she's been here for 2 weeks now which is actually pretty long for a kitten." (BTW, I totally would've adopted Trinity if I could- she was so adorable! If you visit in the next few days, she might still be there but hopefully she found a furever home by now.) It's clear how much everyone there truly cares about the animals and the people who visit.

I love this place: delicious coffee, great atmosphere, excellent kitty merchandise. 10/10 highly recommend, will definitely be bringing my kids back soon and getting gift cards for...

My family and we’re interested in getting a new kitten during quarantine. We went to the cafe many times, spending at total of around $700 to try find the cat we wanted to adopt. Finally we found one and we put in the adoption papers so we could take him home. We were told that the papers usually get approved in about the day, but we waited a total of 4 days to get our response. During this 4 days my family spent the time trying to think of the perfect name for the cat, full of excitement. The response stated that we could not adopt the cat because we checked off the box for him to be an indoor/outdoor cat. Nowhere is it stated that the cat had to be an indoor/outdoor cat. We were bummed that we could let him roam free outside, but we were willing to keep him as an indoor cat if it was required for adoption, so we called the cafe to see if he was still available, but he was adopted a day before we got rejected. We then emailed the owner of the cafe, Cindy Washburn, so we could talk about our experience and if we could possibly get a free session because we already paid so much money for our cat to be “stolen” from us, but she didn’t respond. We read through other reviews and we had found many other people who had gone through the same experience as us, and for one of the posts Cindy called his complaint an “adult temper tantrum for not getting what he wants.” We feel like she is very unprofessional on how she handles criticism, and is unfair with how she handled the adoption process. And on top of that to call our complaints “adult temper tantrums” is down right disrespectful. We have four kids who were excited to get their new cat and she broke their hearts when they heard the news. We gave her a chance to explain and redeem herself before we put in this review, but again, she didn’t respond. It was an all around disappointing...