A cafe in central York run by cats! Well not exactly run by them but it’s their cafe and it does feel like they are in charge.
What to expect:
The 15 or so cats that live in the cafe come from local rescues and the cafe is now their home. They are free to come and go wherever they please and choose whether they interact with visitors.
The cafe offers hour long slots to spend with the cats, or you can book a couple of hours if you want to stay longer. Slots are £7 per person per hour.
The door to the cafe is kept locked to keep the cats safe and at the start of your session you are let in to the reception area. Here we were greeted by Snowy, a gorgeous long haired white cat who inspected our bags. On entering the cafe you are able to choose your own table. Tables are spread over two floors and are a mixture of traditional table, comfortable arm chairs and sofas. There is even a couple of egg swing chairs.
After wandering around and meeting all the cats we choose a sofa and ordered our food and drinks. Pip chose Victoria Sponge cake and a hot chocolate and I went for a traditional cream tea. Each table has glass domes to cover your food if the cats decide to pay you a visit or if you need to leave your food unattended at any point.
The cats all have their own personalities and there is information available about all the cats, the staff were also happy to chat to us about each of the cats and tell us a little about each of their stories.
Some of the cats chose to interact with us and some stayed firmly asleep for the hour that we were there. Luna decided that she must have a bite of my daughter’s Victoria sponge so it spent a lot of time under the cake dome being protected. There are toys available all over the cafe for you to play with the cats.
The food:
There is a range of cakes and hot and cold drinks on offer and we can confirm that they were delicious. The full menu can be found here.
What you need to know:
Children under 10 are not permitted in the cafe and those over 10 are expected to behave around the cats. There are rules to follow about giving the cats space and not touching them while they are sleeping and eating.
Our thoughts:
We really enjoyed this experienced, the cats were relaxed and the small numbers of people meant that they are not pressured to interact, the ones that did were friendly and gentle. The food was also delicious and the staff really friendly and happy to chat about the cats. We will definitely be back.
We visited in May 2022 when Pip was 10.
Go everywhere, Do everything 