Ah Meow aka Choco Cat Cafe 啊貓地攤

Hitman and I first heard of the concept of cat cafes about a year ago. He read about them in one of those free daily papers and became really excited, and we planned on visiting one in Asia someday.

Then we sorta forgot about it for a while.

Then, on Fannypack’s and my last day in Seoul, which was a Saturday, we were doing one last round in Myeongdong and I saw a cat mascot. I walked over to see what it was and it turned out to be a mascot for a cat cafe nearby. In fact, there were about 3 of them in the vicinity.

In the end, Fannypack didn’t want to go, and we don’t leave each other alone, so that was that.

But when I got on the phone with Hitman, he strongly urged me to find one in Hong Kong, which was our next stop. I found one, and since I was meeting up with my cousin I decided that we should go there.

Thank god for my cousin. I never would’ve found Ah Meow on my own. It’s located at the centre of Causeway Bay near Times Square and so it was very busy. Plus the cafe is up on the 3rd floor of a pretty run-down looking building with no flashy signage. I could only confirm it by looking up and actually seeing a cat by the window. The elevator up is equally sketchy. The building reminds me of the ones you see in Hong Kong triad movies where you go up and find multiple brothels. I must admit I was a bit nervous.

However it turns out that on the same level was a classy looking Japanese-goods store and another restaurant I think. The front door was cute so by then my nerves were calmed.

On the door it says “Members Only”, but really they just need you to fill out a small form and to get a card and that’s it. I’m not sure they even need to see it when you visit. This cafe’s official name, as listed in Google search, is Ah Meow. However, it’s previously been known as Choco Cat Cafe and is also known as simply Cat Cafe, or Cat Store. In fact, that’s the name that’s printed on their membership card. 啊貓地攤 is the only name they have in Chinese though.

You are immediately welcomed by cat paraphernalia of all kinds, whether they made sense or not…as long as there’s a cat on it it’s there. We were however not welcomed by the cats…not that they hissed or anything but they just ignored you. I must say they were pretty cat-like…lazying around and just not make a notice of you.

But there were a lot of them. One of them is bound to like people 😉

Immediately though we started petting any cat we could find and feverishly taking pictures. We found two grey kitties sitting on a counter and after petting one of them, he actually came over and made himself comfortable in the booth right beside us. I fell in love with that one with the flat face.

They menu is full of cat-decorated items and they are super cute. They could even make a birthday cake for your cat with a design of your cat’s face!

Now we did not expect stellar food here as of course the main attraction was the cats. The prices are apparently too high for the quality and type of food. But hey I’m used to over paying here in Canada so really, any food in Hong Kong is a good deal for me at this point.

We ordered a simple meal- Marinated Chicken Wings to start, Dry Mixed Instant noodle with Pork chop and sausage to share, and a drink each. Mine was a Chocolate Milk Soda (only in Asia) and Cousin had a simple Yuzu Tea. I wouldn’t call it the best food in the world…but of course the attraction to this place is not the food, it’s just something they offer for you to munch on while you’re playing with the kitties right?

Some of the cats will actually come onto your booth and sit with you. We saw some perched on the booths beside the window…probably cuz they like the sunshine too.

On the table there’s also some house rules written…mostly being to not overfeed the cats, and don’t “force yourself” on the cats aka pick them up if they don’t want you to. And don’t wake them from their sleep.

Finally one of the kitties came to our booth also…this was around the time our food came, which could very well be the reason why. It never really touched my food though, just sniffles here and there, and walking around all over my stuff.

Lastly we also ordered a dessert to share: very cute cat shaped ice cream sandwiches. On the left is a very buttery shortbread cookie with strawberry ice cream, and the right is chocolate shortbread with chocolate ice cream. The chocolate ice cream actually had chocolate bits in it so it was very good. The cookies tasted very fresh. I would say these were probably the best parts of the meal.

Apart from these Ah Meow also has an assortment of themed cakes and chocolates. I love the details on some of the cakes…one has a kitty eating a fish with the caption “I Love Fish”.

In the end we spent quite a bit of time here just taking pictures of the cats and petting any one that would let us. Most of them however were quite snobbish and will walk away from you.

Otherwise I’m very happy to have visited this niche of establishments and am very glad my cousin’s not afraid of cats and will go with me. I Skyped Hitman while I was there and he was insanely jealous.