The Catcade - Cat Cafe & Rescue — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Honestly I was really disappointed in this experience. Please consider this if you're looking to adopt a cat or even enjoy your experience.

The staff was really nice but the lack of phone number to call and aggressive writing throughout the website is frustrating. There were way too many people in such a small space, not enough toys to play with any of the cats, and their current site does not explain at all that it is different than the old location. It's not a cocktail or coffee lounge at all anymore but the google description says it is. That's fine, just annoying. My partner and I got there early and waited outside as instructed but she had to go to the bathroom so she pulled at the doors to the lobby (which automatically lock everytime they close) and the worker came and told her the bathroom is in the lounge and they can't allow anyone into the lobby or the building. I get that they don't want cats to escape, I don't want that either, but if they moved to a new space you'd think they'd plan to accommodate that. Plus the strict waiting outside policy is a little annoying considering it's a large group of people just waiting outside and if the weather is anything but perfect it would be awful.

On the lacking toy front, there's no way to really get any time with these cats in because they're mostly kittens and just want to play. But there's barely any toys. Like maybe 5 springs total and a few little plush toys. No wand toys at all.

The whole point is to help get cats adopted by the right homes but the reason people are coming to meet them first is to get to know them. Which is hard if you can't pick them up and you have no toys to play with them. Plus there's so many people in there at a time that you're all fighting (politely no one was rude or anything) for the few toys to help get these kitties attention.

The whole experience just felt misleading since again, there's so many cats, not enough toys, and too many people. The few arcade games they had you couldn't really play because there wasn't really room to do that. That's fine I wasn't there for that.

But all these things add up to a really uncomfortable experience. If you want to spend time with kitties who need it and/or you're looking to adopt, local shelters offer a lot more flexibility and focus on getting cats adopted. And it's free to go.

Again the staff was super nice, no issues there. Just a really...

I don't usually write reviews but I was so disappointed with the treatment here that I felt the need to. I'll preface this by explaining the situation: my friend and I were visiting Chicago for a week and thought this would be a cute place to hang out with cats for a bit. We made the reservation a few days in advance (knowing about the no-refund policy), counting on the fact that we could rely on the public transport here to get us to the place which is kind of far from our hotel. Today arrives, and we realize that the bus line that we were relying on didn't have any available buses for a long time so we realized that we most likely would not be able to make our reservation here in the narrow window they provided us to arrive.

They don't have a phone number (with a snarky and borderline rude explanation as to why in their website FAQs) so we sent an email explaining the situation and hoping that we could get a refund since we didn't intentionally cancel or miss the appointment. I understand that they have a no-refund policy. I get it. We still thought we would email to explain and if they had been polite in their response and actually acted like they gave a damn about their customers, we would've accepted that the $30 we spent was going to a good cause and moved on.

However, the response we got was so incredibly rude (check the photo I attached of the response the owner Chris sent to us via email). I have never, in my life, been treated this way by an owner of a business. He was unnecessarily nasty in his response and even implied that we lied about the bus. Additionally, not everyone can afford a $60 uber ride! What a ridiculous assumption. His response was very childish and not at all professional. Do yourself a favor and don't give this business your time or your effort. There are plenty of other shelters and non-profits that...

The kittens were lovely but the staff is incredibly authoritative and off-putting. I have previously worked in pet care and was shocked by the treatment of the staff to guests coming in to adopt or play with the cats. I was uncomfortable the entire visit after being yelled at by the front desk worker for filling out the form that he asked we fill out before entering, despite having made a reservation. The staff that entered into the cat room with us were lovely, and our time away from the majority of workers throughout our reservation was completely fine. But again, while leaving and gently trying to wake a kitten asleep in my lap while it protested, a staff member came by and helped me move the kitten. Both my partner and myself were looking to adopt the kitten for our new apartment and made this reservation specifically to spend an extended time with an animal to determine if it was a good fit for us and our space. I thanked the staff member and asked what the kittens name was since 3-4 kittens looked similar in their Polaroid book of adoptable cats. They snapped “I don’t know” at us and then waived us away despite us wanting to adopt an animal. I would’ve been super happy to give this kitten a home but I don’t want to support this space where other people may be looking to find their forever companion only to have a miserable experience. I understand how careless people can be with animals especially when just visiting them from working in animal care myself, but treating every person entering this way is ridiculous and made us uncomfortable...