New Cat Café Opens in Vancouver – Love It? Take It Home!

Text & Photos /Papa Seahorse

A cat-loving Taiwanese has added a charming twist to coffee culture: the cat café. Sharing a space with feline friends while sipping aromatic coffee and playing with the cats offers immense mental healing. This trend swept from Taiwan to the rest of the world...

Rumors about the opening of Vancouver’s cat café have circulated for a long time, but nothing materialized—until December last year when it finally debuted, instantly attracting cat lovers from all over.

Located in the Crosstown district, where downtown Vancouver meets Chinatown, this Catfe (yes, that’s Cat + Café) stands out from other cat cafés because all the cats come from the BC SPCA (British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and are up for adoption. Thus, the café acts like a foster center for these cats—cats come and go, so you’ll need to seize every moment to interact with them, as they might get adopted by kind-hearted patrons the next day. The café houses a maximum of 12 cats, sometimes as few as 4–5, so how many you meet depends on your luck.

The café is situated on the second floor of the International Village Mall in Crosstown. With dim lighting at the entrance, you’d never guess it’s one of the city’s hottest cafés if not for the queue of customers visible through the glass windows.

Push open the door, and a sign reveals the secret of the two entrances: head left for coffee and desserts; to play with the cats, purchase a ticket and enter through the right door. Turns out, spending time with the cats requires buying timed entry!! To ensure the cats’ peace, only 16 customers are allowed in at a time, with each visitor limited to one hour to give more people a chance to interact with the cats.

The counter on the left serves not only coffee but also adorable cupcakes featuring kitty faces that catch the eye. I ordered a coffee, Papa Seahorse got a blueberry-flavored mini cake, paid the $5 cat-viewing fee, and stepped into the cat café on the right. The receptionist checked our tickets and asked us to sign a cat-lover consent form. Under the lazy gaze of a cat perched on the counter, I washed my hands at the sink by the entrance, walked past shelves lined with cat-related merchandise, and entered the lofty cat café.

The café has two floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the bleakness of Vancouver’s winter streets. Scattered wooden tables are paired with cat-patterned woven chairs. Cat-themed books and toys are casually placed on the tables, while the floor is strewn with tunnel tents, toy mice, and other feline amusements. People of all skin tones and genders love crouching on the floor to play with the cats. A long wooden cabinet along the wall serves as the cats’ “capsule sleeping pods,” where they curl up soundly under the bold “Meow” lettering—or stare curiously at the enthralled humans.

I settled into a window seat and opened my laptop to work. A black-and-white cat quietly passed by, its tail gently brushing my ankle. Gazing out the window at the winter afternoon street scene, it then hopped onto the wooden platform by the window and dozed off on the cushion.

I reached out to touch its tail, stroking its glossy black back, but it barely noticed, only occasionally glancing back at me. I took out my camera and snapped a shot of its handsome profile. Startled by the sharp click of the shutter, it looked up slightly in surprise at the lens just 30 centimeters away, then after a few seconds, lowered its head and lazily shifted into another snoozing position.

I’ve never been much of a cat person, but this was my first time observing them up close. Well cared for, each cat had sleek, shiny fur and a healthy build. Even when waking from a nap, their serene gaze seemed to pierce right through you.

Whether you’re a cat lover or not, Catfe is the perfect place to unwind, enjoy some reading with feline companions, or simply have fun with cats. If you fall for a particular cat, consider signing up for adoption—you might just bring your new furry friend home.

Notes:

1. Catfe is closed every Thursday for staff to care for or rotate adoptable cats.
2. With food ordered: $5 admission fee; without food: $8 admission fee.
3. Please follow the cat café rules: Do not wake sleeping cats, no flash photography, no feeding the cats, do not pick up or touch their bellies, no chasing, and do not let cats escape out the door. Also, do not bring your own pet cats.
4. Due to high popularity, online reservations currently have a one-month wait. It’s recommended to book on the café’s website in advance to avoid being turned away or waiting too long.

Catfe
Hours: Open daily from 11 AM to 9 PM, except Tuesdays.
Location: Second Floor, Crosstown International Village Mall

Papa Seahorse
A Gemini man under the air sign, he worked as a senior marketing and PR executive for multinational corporations before age 45. After turning 45, he moved to Canada. Alongside his teenage sons, he plays the role of a father amidst foreign springs of cherry blossoms, summers of sunshine, autumns of maple leaves, and winters of rain and snow, while documenting his experiences in Vancouver.

Blog:Vancouver Laughs – my.van.lifeFacebook Page:Papa Seahorse’s Vancouver Diary

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