Bedford Cat Café

The cats were very sweet. The lady taking orders with the black hair and the tattoos was lovely. Our daughter Was presented with a cat cafe book mark when she was seen opening birthday gifts but unfortunately that's where the positives end. The manager I believe, went between being very curt and almost militant in her "instructions" to eavesdropping into conversations between patrons and adding to the conversation where it wasn't welcomed. She is clearly very knowledgeable and passionate about the cats and their welfare but at times she made us feel very uncomfortable, we have owned rescue cats ourselves for a long time now and know how to interact with them. This was also after we had read the "manual" provided to us on the cats characters. What really wasn't on was when she informed us very bluntly that we had 5 minutes until we had to leave when it was obviously our child was still eating. I did explain that despite putting in our desert order in plenty of time, there was a delay in it arriving, I guess because it was so busy. She argued with me that we would have to leave because it was end of our time slot? The food was overpriced and not nice at all. My "toastie" was just warmed bread, we received one brownie so hot, the plate burnt my child's finger and one stone cold. When my mother in law commented to say she didn't enjoy the gluten free bread (I did not either) she was quick to retaliate in saying the bread was good and it is what she used at home?! The other owner, which I was informed was the managers daughter looked utterly bored just being there. Very little patron interaction and spent most of our visit glued to her phone. We spent over £50 on food plus the "entrance fee" which seemed a lot for poor food and even poorer customer service for a timed period where the birthday girl was rushed to finish her birthday lunch dessert. I understand cats cost money to keep with food, vet bills and flea/worm treatment but it was simply not worth the money. Unfortunately, we will not be returning. If you do decide to visit, the coffee isn't bad but don't bother with the food. And dont waste your time reading and explaining the rules to your children beforehand because you are not allowed to enter the premises until you've been told about them.

I am doing an honest review to hopefully help this establishment. I came in today with my daughter. She was very excited about coming here! She had a wonderful time with the cats! I’m very happy this made her day. We drove 1 1/2 hours for this cat cafe and I had higher expectations from all the positive reviews. They had a wonderful variety of gluten free food. (So props for that) Unfortunately I had no appetite because of the strong strong off putting smell of the cat box! It smelled like it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. A few of the cats had matting. 2 of the cats needed a good cleaning. If you are having animals around food then you should clean the pee and poop off of them regularly. One was severely covered in pee. Also one of the cats had snot all over him and the splatter from her sneezing was everywhere. Definitely not that cat’s fault. The chairs had poop marks on them. I also felt like I was constantly being reminded of how much time I had left. I also kept overhearing other people discussing the time issue. I am very aware of my time slot and that I arrived late. Some of the staff was friendly and some not so much. Overall we will not be returning here or recommending this cafe. (Again this is not fault of the cats themselves and I do understand that this is a cafe with live animals. I also work with animals and know more could have been done for a cleaner environment)