The Cats Restaurant – BBQ, Brunch Buffet & Live Music — Restaurant in Los Gatos

Been here 10 years ago. We were so excited to go! All of us were hungry!

The place went downhill a lot. Many issues.

The good: The place itself is lovely—I love the building and live music.

The bad: I made a reservation for 3 people and they sat us down but then proceeded to not take our order for like 20 minutes… it is a Saturday at 7:30 pm, I was surprised at how understaffed they were. Their one server was new with no supervisor, and instead of taking orders from waiting customers would ask ones already with food if “everything is ok”… not efficient time management. The staff does not know their allergens information, made us wait even longer. Small menu AND they did not have a meal we wanted in stock. Our backup meal was not available too. I thought small menus were made to avoid this issue. Their actual menu books were messy. Some were missing entire pages. There was no order to the pages. We ordered cola… and we got water. There was almost zero syrup there and it looked like cream soda color wise. I am not sure how you miss something like that. We asked how long to wait for our order and were told 10-15 minutes and that starter will come first. It did not. In fact, one out of three meals came first. I don’t think it is professional to carry out one meal if it is a party. It would be better if they were served all together. Some people sat by us way after we order, and they got both their orders first. That was the breaking point for us so we just didn’t want to wait anymore and left. If you have food that is already ready to be served, state so in the menu to avoid confusion. Food: The one meal that came (pork) came with onion rings and fries. Last time we were here, onion rings were thin and amazing. Now they’re just slightly above average with the usual thick batter. Disappointed, as it was the main reason we came there. With the pork came a house salad. On the menu it said “dressing of choice,” but we were not given this choice. The staff decided for us and just served it, then didn’t tell us what dressing it was, and couldn’t provide its allergen info (our party had someone allergic to grape seed oil and we wanted to know!) Not the best for a 26 dollars experience… We eventually got our starter (after one of the meals coming, which we were told that starter should have came first…) with them apologizing and saying something about a ticket issue. The starter was cheesy fries, but the cheese wasn’t even really melted and just shredded on top. It is a bit basic but passable. BBQ sauce has a lot of tomato in it, almost same as ketchup. Didn’t like it personally. Will never get over the super distilled no syrup cola. How do you not notice that it is not cola when it is yellow in color? Even if the staff is new, this is just an odd error for anyone to make... I wish I took a picture. Service: No tips. They asked us “is everything ok” when our food wasn’t even there and we were waiting for an hour now if combining time of waiting to order and waiting FOR the order; messed up the tickets in some way, making us wait more; didn’t know basic allergen information about their (already small) menu; a very long wait to order; understaffed and unsupervised new staff… management of this place could use work; and people that came before us got their food while we left without even having ours be ready yet. Overall: Left poor taste and was not worth the drive. Two stars ONLY and ONLY cuz I like the cute cat themed bar and live music.

The prices you charge are not cheap, yet the wait, the service, the lack of structure, is not worth it in my opinion. Maybe this place has a new manager now, but whatever it is, it is not as good as before. I may have not waited for a table since I reserved it, but they took forever to actually take my order and we ended up giving up on waiting for most of the food and left.

Won’t be coming back soon. At least it will be something for my party to look back at and laugh. Disaster! I’ll come back in 10 years again to see how it will change lol.

Left...

Not recommended.

I thought for a long time on whether to write a review, and then also on what I would write. I ordered the sampler plate which came with their brisket, ribs, and pulled pork. Premium sides cost extra - I paid for the cornbread and beans. And then I added a beer to that. All said and done, after tip I paid just under $70 for one person.

The food: The only positive thing I have to say about the food was that some of the brisket was the correct texture/shreddable. But really it felt as though the ribs, pulled pork, and the brisket were all just overdone - dry and chewy. They were mostly devoid of moisture - when I think of good brisket I imagine something that has been perfectly rendered due to hours on the grill, and is respected as such. If this was the case it basically tripped at the finish line when it arrived in front of me.

Due to the doneness of the food I could not appreciate any "natural" flavor of the meat if that was their angle. I basically never put sauce on brisket because of how luxurious that cut is in both flavor and texture when prepared correctly. In this scenario, I reached for the bottle almost on every bite and hit the pulled pork and brisket I could no longer finish with a few generous lines before packing it away.

Going on to the sides, I have to say that I was disappointed by the cornbread - I feel like this should be included by default on a plate (alongside some pickles, but there were also no pickles). That being said, it could have been excused if the cornbread stood its ground as "premium". Ultimately it did not - it was baked in a cupcake tin based on the shape and size and lacked impact both in taste and texture. Truly nothing about the piece was noteworthy - I could detect small bits of corn kernels inside, but being at the starting line is very different from being elite if this were a race. The other premium side that I got were the baked beans, and perhaps the best thing I could say about them is that there was nothing special about them. I do think baked beans could be premium per se, but these really had nothing to them that warranted such a title. No flaws aside from that to be fair.

Ultimately the reason I am choosing to leave such a detailed review is twofold: I honestly do not think this restaurant is worth going to considering the experience, but I would like to be proven wrong. I have driven by this place every time I have visited my sister in Santa Cruz for the last 8 years, and made a mental note to stop by if I had the chance. It is open 3/7 days of the week, is somewhat remote, and you need to pull off a highway to access it (if you are going the other way you'll have to wait for a gap to make a left turn). Given how inconvenient it is to get to eat here, I cannot say it is worth the stop over and certainly not an explicit trip based on the food I ate. Given all this, I feel like this place should/needs to be better than whatever the benchmark here in the Bay area is. If the regular clientele is enough for them to stay in business I am honestly happy for the owners because times are tough these days. But if you want to attract new business, having the reputation of serving food awesome enough for people to travel to eat instead of just being "this interesting restaurant in the middle of the highway" could go a long way.

That being said, I am confused by all the glowing positive reviews - is it possible I just happened to have a bad plate? At any rate, I do not plan on stopping by here again in the immediate future. I may drop in on a whim the next time I visit my sister over the next year or two to see if anything has changed, but that second visit will certainly confirm whether my first experience was a one-off or if this restaurant is just not cut out for...

Lots of potential but The Cats failed to deliver.

We ordered St. Luis ribs (w/ pineapple slaw and garlic fries) cornbread, roots medley, and two drinks.

The starters and main arrived at the same time. The ribs arrived with the wrong side so we asked that it be corrected and it was relatively quickly. The roots medley never came out.

Honestly, the food was not good. Our favorite item was the cornbread...! The ribs were lukewarm and very dry. They had good color but we had to drench them in the spicy BBQ sauce to get them down. Pineapple slaw might as well be called regular cole slaw and garlic fries were very oily. Can't comment on the root medley because it never came out but it sounded like it would be a well balanced vegetable plate. The whole meal left some to be desired (from a quality perspective, portions were adequate) but we didn't dare order anything more.

The drinks were not done being made when the food came out and then they sat in the back of the bar for another 5-10 minutes waiting to be picked up by the waitress before we took matters into our own hands, got up, and asked if we could get them from the bartender.

As for the drinks themselves, also not great. However, I can't honestly blame the bartender as they appeared to be one of the only employees pulling their weight with servers vanishing or otherwise not being helpful. We ordered the pineapple mezcal and summertime blues. Pineapple mezcal didn't live up to the hype and seemed a bit underpoured and the summertime blues was badly over poured almost entirely muting the flavors. We typically order 2 drinks each but we had a mutual unspoken understanding that we wouldn't be ordering more drinks.

Finally, about 20 minutes after the food arrived and 10 minutes after we got up to grab the drinks that were waiting to be delivered by the waitress at the bar, our waitress returned and asked if everything was looking alright. At least she asked but 20 minutes afterwards is not the time to do it. Our waitress vanished a second time after checking in and we eventually asked the bartender if she could prepare the check so we could pay.

There was live music playing which added to the ambiance so...