The Cat Cafe (The Rail Mall)

[ Cat Cafe Review ] For those who’ve known me for a while, I’ve always been a cat kinda girl. The only problem? I’m allergic to fur. Welp. So a certain someone came up with the solution of loading me up on antihistamines, then dragging me for a short visit to a cat café (my first!), and whisking me home before any damage is done!

Animal cafés are not a novel concept. I’ve seen many but because of the less-than-ideal conditions/rules many have, never felt comfortable visiting them. So what makes this café different?

1) The rules: Let’s be real. The main reason you’re patronising a cat café is to get some of that sweet feline attention. While there are many places with the generic “please treat the animals nicely” or other variants, I do appreciate TCC’s rule of not picking up or carrying the cats + not disturbing cats when they’re in the rest area. Gotta love a place that puts its animals’ safety and wellbeing first!

2) The food: Most themed cafés and the likes suffer greatly from a mediocre menu that’s grossly overpriced. The selection here isn’t too wide, but they make up for it with moderate pricing and decent size. A certain someone’s pie was not only pretty hefty with much more filling than we’d expected, it tasted pretty good too.

3) The staff: Always nice to see the staff so passionate about the animals! One of the cats was older and sounded like it has a history of digestive issues, and after it started choking/hacking up part of its meal, the staff was immediately up and sending details over the phone try and figure out if it required med attention or if rest would suffice.

4) The environment (for Rail Mall’s branch): Accessible, open, spacious, and pretty comfortable — and that’s all my checkboxes for a good café spot! You’ve the option of being seated on the floor or at a proper table, but both put you in intimate view of the feline residents without being intrusive. (If you’re “lucky” like me, you may even get used as a trampoline for an eager cat trying to race towards its meal!)

5) The cats: These cats are either adopted or rehomed strays! They’re plenty cute, plenty greedy (keep your food close!), and plenty mischievous — perfect characters to watch on a slow day!