El Jefe Cat Cafe — Restaurant in Tucson

I don’t even know where to start. When we walked in, we were immediately hit with an overwhelming fecal odor straight to the face. We checked out the website before making our reservation, feeling reassured by the statement that all ages were welcome. We have a cat at home, and both of our children adore cats, so we decided to give it a shot. We were met at check in by a person with an unwelcoming vibe. I held our smaller child, and reminded our school age child that we were to be calm and gentle with the cats. The cats clearly would have rather been any other place in the world than the El Jefe cat cafe. It was sad to see unsocialized and practically feral cats exploited under the guise of charity. The worker had eyes on us like a hawk, and it felt as though we were the main attraction of Saturday’s 11am lounge hours. They first yelled at our older son while he was playing with one cat that ended up running away, informing him that the cat was done playing- a judgement call that even my son could make. The final straw was the scene the worker made in the 3rd floor kitten lounge. Our smaller child was laughing with excitement, when we heard a ferocious storming up the stairs. The poorly hand crafted wooden door swung open and we were publicly scrutinized for being too loud, and were informed that there were disabled kittens that were sensitive to noise (I can’t remark on whether or not the cat was disabled prior to or during his lodging at the El Jefe cat cafe). I informed the worker that we did not feel welcome in the shop anymore, and would like our admission refunded. They continued on, informing me of the rules posted online and at the entrance, which had not been broken by anyone in our party. We decided it was time to go. Wow. What a sad environment. I would recommend that any PETA activist check out this establishment, as it definitely takes priority over any average circus or animal attraction. We will not be returning and I encourage any normal person (especially those with children) to avoid this cafe...

Please better clean the litter boxes and couch sheets. The overwhelming smell of ammonia and feces was a lot that I left early from a massive headache due to the smell. I felt gross sitting on anything because it's all sprayed on by the cats. The litter boxes were FULL. I also understand wanting to adopt out cats, but they need to better assess which cats they bring into the cafe for people to interact with. Most of the cats are acting feral with only a handful (four) who are actually social enough to be in this kind of environment. I have been to countless cat cafes all over the world and have never been scratched from any cat with ill intent, especially not unprovoked by a cat in a cafe. I've actually never been scratched this bad by a cat ever, and I've been around cats my entire life and worked professionally with them for many years. It was a feral/unsocialized cat sleeping near me while I was drinking tea while I was watching another unsocialized cat play on its own. The one that scratched woke up from a random sound, saw me, hissed and scratched my hand that was resting while holding my tea and ran away. Many other cats were extremely overstimulated and aggressive, scratching and hissing at other people. The cats' coats and physical demeanors are also telling. Almost all of them have unclean greasy coats and their tails are down, running away and hiding. Great concept here with the layout but it would be better and safer to properly assess the cats at the shelter before bringing them here for adoption. And don't bother buying the treats. Only one fat cat wanted the treats, none of the others showed any interest because they're too...

We paid $28 dollars and reserved an hour for my family member's birthday to enjoy an hour with the kitties and there was about 18-20 other people that came in later at the same time. Each individual lounge space is small, so there weren't enough chairs for everyone to sit. We thought the reservation and the cover charge for the hour would at least give us a 1 on 1 to bond and select a kitty to bring home, or at the very worst, a smaller gathering.

Their wasn't an opportunity to bond as cats were a bit stressed out at all the people and would bolt or hide every time the door opened or someone came up the stairs. We also felt pressured to move along as others present became fascinated with the cats we were able to pet/give attention to.

We were happy to donate for the cause, however, we would have appreciated having been told or something posted on the website that the cover charge was solely for donations and the reservation was there to manage the maximum people allowed in the space at one time (which that number should be posted too to set the right expectation).

If you do the math, after getting drinks and paying the cover charge for two people, that's about $50-$60 that can go towards an actual adoption and supplies to a shelter that doesn't charge or give false pretenses that you will have any quality time by "reserving" or setting an...