Review | Tia's Trip to a Copenhagen Cat Café

inside café miao

TIA HERE with a story I never thought I'd live to tell: 1) because I didn't know there were cat cafés in places that are not Asia and 2) because I am allergic to cats (or, at least, I thought I was). But despite all odds, here in Copenhagen, Denmark, there is a cat café that is aptly called Café Miao. What's a cat café? you might be wondering. It's exactly what it sounds like: a typical café with the addition of cats roaming around at their own leisure. It's like eating in a pet shop, minus the cages, but also minus the concern that the animals will take your food--cats have more dignity than that, and they also are forbidden from eating the food so they are more used to just hanging around while people eat. If you don't want to eat anything, for just 50 DKK ($8.50) you can step inside the cat room for as long as you like and just pet cats. Or, if you're like me and my friends Alanna and Katya, you can buy some food at a minimum of 50 DKK and have a nice meal in addition to petting cats.

café miao's sign out front 

café miao from the street

As you can probably tell from the picture above, Café Miao is not all that far from Tivoli and is just as fun. When you first walk in, you order food at a register--anything from stir fry to cake and coffee--and then enter the room with all of the cats. While there, I saw a total of six cats, although there may be more, as there is an "employees only" room with a cat door that I'm assuming is just for the cats if they need a break from human interaction. While most of them were sleeping, there were two cats that were especially active, jumping onto tables to greet people and running all about the structures that had been set up for them.

vegetable stir fry and rice

caffe latte 

cake of the day (chocolate)

the aftermath

not quite reading tea leaves, but can you spot the man?

I ordered a real meal--vegetable stir fry--for 88 DKK ($14.89), and it came with brown rice and free water. Alanna and Katya bought some drinks and chocolate cake. We sat down at a table with a cat already on it, but when the waitress came to deliver our food shortly after, she was sure to take the cat off of the table first. No human food for the cats! We ate as fast as we could so we could get to the cat petting. While the food was pretty good, we weren't really there for food! On that note, let's move on to the cute cat pictures.

the wall by our table with profiles of the cats

decorations around the room (and a sleepy kitty)

some cat stairs along the back wall

a bookshelf and cat gym

To give you some idea of how the room is set up, here are some photos of the café. As for the cats themselves: the two of them who were especially active welcomed petting and attention, although one of them was rather desperate to escape.

this one liked pretending to be batman 

this cat was the first we interacted with, and the friendliest

cat sitting on our table

these cats were not friends!

this one, while photogenic, did not seem very interested in people

trying to escape

still trying to escape!

giving up on the escape?

this looks like an uncomfortable pose 

that's better

this cat was so pretty! 

over time, it relaxed

it didn't mind pictures, although its mind was clearly set on escape

it thought the door was opening and became alert

While these two were active, some of the cats just stuck to sleeping. We tried not to bother them and they slept through the whole hour and a half we were there.

a sleepy kitty

heading to bed

getting comfy

I give this place an A! I was quite impressed by the lack of cat hair in my food despite the number of cats present, which I think was the only thing that could have made the experience bad (or if my cat allergy had been reawakened, which it did not). I enjoyed the food, found the prices reasonable, and loved the company of cats and people. The only thing that could have pushed the rating up to an A+ would be if there was more of an established aesthetic. I think if the place hadn't appeared so bare, but had a more established decor, I would've given it a full score hands down. Still, it hits all the points that truly matter--food and cats to pet--so I can't complain. If you're a fan of cats, a cat café like Café Miao is a necessary visit. Good food and cats to pet? What could be better?

For more, check out Tia's new blog!

Much love,

T.