Nov 4, 20144 min read

5 Cat Cafes to check out in Seoul

5 Cat Cafes to check out in Seoul

Feline Cafes have been rising in popularity amongst youths and café goers. The unique business concept of interacting with animals while sipping a cup of latte sits well with the ever-evolving & demanding trend-setters, always yearning to try new things and experience the latest gigs and inventions in town. Cat cafes have been rising in popularity in Singapore recently and a check on the Internet shows that there are altogether seven cat cafes in Singapore.

One might know that the Cat Café Craze started in Korea. In fact, Korea is the must visit place if you want to check out interesting themed cafes surrounding dogs, sheep and even Hello Kitty.

During my recent trip to Seoul, Korea, I crazily visited Cat Cafes at least ten times during my trip. Yes! Seriously. Ten Times. In fact, the entrance fee is Won 8,000 equivalent to SGD9.5 only, which makes it very affordable for Singaporeans. You get a free drink of your choice as well.

For you cat lovers who are planning a trip to Korea, do check out these 5 Cat Cafes when you are there.

Some basic Instructions to Note:

Before entering the café, customers have to take off their shoes and swap them out for some slippers. Once done, you have to disinfect your hands with a sanitizer so you do not bring anything onto the cats. Once inside, you will be greeted and asked if you have visited the place before, and if it is your first time they will often give you a quick run down of the rules that you need to follow.

1) Café Café MyeongDong

website: http://www.godabang.com, phone number: 02-3481-3123 (in Korea)

Address: 8-5 Myeongdong 8-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

http://www.godabang.com/

The counter to order your drinks

This cat café situated in the busy Myeongdong area is highly popular amongst the locals and tourists. I visited this café three times and it was always packed when I was there. The café owner was also exceptionally friendly and takes good care of the café. . I can see her running around attending to cats, customers and making sure the place is kept stain and odour free. She also hires some very interesting and fashionable teenagers, exuding style and personality while attending to customers. In terms of variety, the cat café spotted cats of different breeds: Exotic Persians, American ShortHair, Norwegian Forest, Siamese , etc. This cat café definitely tops my list of must-visit places in Korea.

Cute Exotic Short Hair Persians spotted

The cafe owner spent a lot of effort and time to put up the montage of her 41 cats

More photos of cute felines

She must be the queen of all Persians in the house!

My ratings:

Cleanliness: 9/10

Friendliness of Cats: 8/10

Friendliness of Staff: 9/10

Ambience: 8/10

2) Cat Café GangNam

website: http://www.godabang.com phone number: 02-3481-3123 (in Korea)

The Cat Café in Gangnam is managed by the same company, Godabang. http://www.godabang.com No surprise here, the design and concept of the café is standardized and similer to the Myeongdong outlet. Once entered, my immediate perception was that the place is very clean and odour-free. Interested in cat stuff? You will find stacks of cat related books lying on shelves for extra reading. I found myself learning more about other unknown breeds like Russian Blue, Sphynx, Korat, Bombay, etc from some of the books there.

Noticed the set up is rather similar as the Myeongdong one?

The cats have very cute and interesting cat furnitures!

Cat owner feeding the cats with delicious wet food

Bio Data of all 21 cats spotted at this cafe

American Short Hair Lady & Black Bombay

Cleanliness: 9/10

Friendliness of Cats: 9/10

Friendliness of Staff: 9/10

Ambience: 8/10

3) Cat Living Hongdae

2F 358-111 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Ths cat café is located near to the Hong Gik University. Though nicely decorated, this place has one of the strongest pet odour amongst the five cafes listed here. I visited the place twice and both times the cats were all sleeping and nowhere to be seen. To be honest, they do have some very cute and adorable cats. However, the cats were mostly tired and lethargic, just like the ambience itself I guess. The café owner was also non-chalant in handling his cats and customers.

Interestingly, the cats here are all very fat and big-sized.

Cleanliness 8/10

Friendliness of cats: 7/10

Friendliness of Staff: 7/10

Ambience: 7/10

4) Y Cat Café

Add: 3F, 358-125, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

The interiors are nicely put together

Y Cat Cafe has a very elaborated Cat Playground

Patrons mostly sit on the floor to attract the cats to sit on their laps

y Cat Café formerly known as Gio Cat Café is located at 12-6, Wausan-ro 21-gil, Mapo-gu. Out of the 5 cat cafes, this is the hardest to locate. The map was also rather confusing as it leads you to another location based on the address given. Nonetheless, I managed to locate the café coincidentally while on my way to Namchon Chicken located 5 min away. The staff are mostly young girls dressed neatly in checkered shirt. They are very attentive to their cats and always seen playing and feeding the cats. A lot of expensive cat breeds were spotted and they range from Persians, Himalayans to Bombays and Russian blue. In terms of ambience, the café spotted bright red and yellow colours, which makes the place a cosy and fun place to be in. This place is very popular amongst tourists and university students.

A very cute Himalayan spotted. However one of the most unfriendliest cat in my list.

The cutest cat spotted in this cafe.

Black cats are rare. This one is a gem.

American Short Hair looking sharp and smart as always

This persian cat was seen playing with the exercise wheel for almost 10 minutes. Who says they are boring?

Cleanliness 9/10

Friendliness of Cats: 8/10

Friendliness of Staff: 8/10

Ambience: 9/10

5) Cat Café Hondae

website: http://www.godabang.com phone number: 02-3481-3123 (in Korea)

The owner of this cat café is one of the friendliest. What the owner did differently was that she took the opportunity to ‘entertain’ her customers when the crowd grew. She took the trouble to prepare wet cat food, and smeared them on customers’ hands so they can feed and get close to the cats.

Door Step to the Cat Cafe