Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium
At the weekend I went to stay in London as an early birthday treat from my parents. While my dad had uni on the Saturday, my mum said she’d take me to see anything I wanted to see while we were there, I chose a visit to Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium. Mum really couldn’t understand why I wanted to go sit and drink tea in a room full of cats, especially when we have 4 at home. But it’s my birthday and I’ll drink tea with cats if I want to.
I’ve been following the Lady Dinah’s story since they started fund raising last year, so once they opened their doors I was there to book my place straight away. I’ve always loved the idea of the Japanese cat cafes, so I was pretty excited with one coming to London. Mum and I got there at our appointment time, and had all of the rules explained to use before the doors opened to our kitty dreams – a real Charlie Bucket moment.
The cat cafe is spread out over two floors, with loads of comfy sofas and hidy holes for the cats to sit on. I really loved all the miss-matching chairs and teacups they had around the place, it really looked homey and comfortable. One thing I wasn’t too bothered about going for was the food, I mean who’s really there for the food? But we were actually super impressed. My mum is dairy and gluten free and sometimes eating out can be bit of a nightmare for her, but she was super impressed with the amount of options she could eat! She got herself a gluten free ploughmans and a gluten and dairy free chocolate and mandarin loaf – which she said was amazing! I had a chicken and avacado bagel and a lovely cream tea with an apple and cinnamon scone.
Of course once you’ve filled up on tea and cake you’re allowed to play with the cats as long as they want to, just make sure you don’t disturb them whilst they’re sleeping or make them feel trapped. There was plenty of toys for you to play with for them, and the cats had loads of shelves and things to climb up on if they wanted to.
One cat that stole the show for us was Wookie – he was absolutely gorgeous and loved a fuss! I loved all of the cats there, some were right characters. I particularly like Donnie and Romeo, two gorgeous ginger males who reminded me of my old cat Matty. The two hours we had there quickly passed, and sadly we had to leave the cats behind. I had an absolutely amazing birthday treat here, all the cats are gorgeous, the tea was amazing (don’t forget the cake), and all of the staff were so lovely, and you could tell they really cared about the cats which is a big plus in my book. My mum also had an amazing time, considering how she thought it was a little silly as we have plenty of cats at home! I’ll certainly be making a trip back another time, you can’t keep me away from cats!