The Travel Journal

What’s a more perfect place to sit and relax in Sydney than a cafe? Enjoying a hot drink on a cold day, or a cold drink on a warm day. Laughing with friends while you watch the people go by. Enjoying the café atmosphere while you work, or pretend to work. Sydney has some of the best cafes for coffee, food and décor, but this one was a little different. This one had cats!

Catmosphere is Sydney’s original cat café, an establishment that offers the opportunity to sit with rescued cats and kittens while enjoying your drink. The café fosters and cares for the cats as if they are their own until they are adopted, and have been doing so for over a decade.

I’ve been wanting to go to this cafe for a while now, but I haven’t gotten the chance. The last time I was supposed to go to Sydney didn’t end up happening, and whenever I’m in Sydney with my parents they’re always on a massive quest, so we never have time to do anything else that’s not on the itinerary. So when I was in Sydney with my 2 best friends, it was the perfect time to go. My friends and I respect what each other wants and try to make it happen. Plus it really helps that we all have the same interests, so as soon as I said there was a cat café in Sydney I wanted to visit, they were both already down, no convincing necessary.

We found the place fairly easily with the help of our phones for directions. The outside was adorable, with the classic brick wall and ornate black rail terrace. They had a French window to serve takeaway coffee and drinks for the people who were in a hurry and didn’t want to spend an hour with the cats. When we got there this little window seemed pretty busy, so it must be a pretty popular and successful place for coffee in Sydney. We were welcomed in and told to sanitise our hands. The place was really clean, which is what you want from a cat cafe. While we were waiting to be taken up to the kitty room, we walked out the back to the outdoor seating area. This place would be really cute to sit and drink with a friend or two if you weren’t in the mood to be surrounded by a bunch of furballs. And there was a mural painted onto the brick wall of a bunch of cats in the Sydney sky. This place definitely knows how to decorate their café, I’ll tell you that!

So, it was finally time to head upstairs to the tiki room and meet all the adorable cats and kittens! We were all so excited. There was only a small family and a young couple joining us so it wasn’t too crowded. I found it funny that they have to have two doors to get into the room because some of the cats like to escape, but this extra measure doesn’t ruin the experience at all. We were welcomed in by a few friendly cats while some of the shyer ones watched on with curiosity. We sat down while we were told how to order drinks, and the dos and don’ts of interacting with the cats. When you book a cat experience with Catmosphere, you also get a complimentary tea or soda, but after a long day in Sydney, I really needed some extra caffeine so I ordered an iced mocha. 

All the cats were absolutely adorable and they each had a different personality. They had their names and photos on the wall so that you knew which was which. My favourite would have to have been Macaroni, a very friendly and gentle kitty who seemed to like hanging with my friends and me. I always thought I favoured black cats because of my love of horror and the supernatural, but Macaroni was a beautiful light orange, almost beige cat with gorgeous ginger stripes. I guess I liked him because of the name as well.

Because we booked a later session, we had the opportunity to feed the cats during their dinner. One of the workers came in with the food bowls and placed a few down in front of every group so that almost everyone had a bowl with them. He told us that if we wanted, we could pick up some cat food and hold it out for them to eat out of our hands. This was my favourite part of the whole experience, as I’m sure it was for everyone else. The cats were so gentle with eating out of our hands and weren’t anxious with us at all. This made me so happy, not just because I had a little kitty eating out of my hand, but because most of the cats that are at Catmosphere are rescues that were once found on the streets or surrendered to a rescue group in need of care. We don’t know what they have been through, but they trust us to love and care for them despite the challenges they have faced in their life.

Once dinner was finished, most of the cats were tired of people. They went off to whatever corner, cat tower or chair they could find to get away from the social interaction. Usually, I would be offended but as a burnt-out introvert, I get it. Pretty soon after, one of the employees came in to tell us that our session was over. We went back downstairs to grab our stuff from the lockers when I noticed the little shelf of goodies for sale. There were socks, pins and adorable little figurines of all kinds of cats. Some of these were themed around popular movies and TV shows, particularly animes and comics. There were so many little figurines I wanted to get, but I just couldn’t walk away without a cat riding a rubber duck! I bought one of the orange cats to remind me of little Macaroni. Until next time Catmosphere! I can’t wait until we meet again!

All photos in this post are taken by me and my friends.

For more information about Catmosphere Cat Café, visit https://catmospherecafe.com.au/