Nabi Cat Cafe: Not Enough Cats
As the main attraction of the cafe, customers enjoy the playful cats. Photo by Toni Spellacy
Nabi Cat Cafe recently opened on The Alameda, where Woof’s Bar previously sat. The Cafe's signage proclaims they are “the cat haven of your dreams,” but even for a self-proclaimed cat lover such as myself, the experience was rather underwhelming.
First of all, this is not a walk-in experience. Trust me, I tried. Walk in, and the most cat you’ll see is one drawn on the wall. So, make sure you make a $28 appointment beforehand. This $28 will get you exactly one hour with the cats, who are housed in a room in the back, and one cafe drink. I ordered a Jeju matcha latte, and it was refreshing and tasted high quality. I was able to specify how sweet I wanted the drink, which was nice.
One of my general gripes about the spot was that it’s very small, especially in the front cafe area. There’s a small counter area but no tables at all, so it felt more like a grab-and-go spot. It wouldn’t be a place I would go to grab a coffee and do homework.
At the time of my appointment—days later—I was ready to get in and see the kitties! There were several other people in my reservation slot, and we packed into another tiny room to go over ground rules before we could go in. However, I was happy to see the room for the cats was really spacey. The cats were able to roam up and down stairs, and the room was beautiful and cozy. There were couches, climbing fixtures for the cats and lots of toys.
As for the cats themselves, they come from the Town Cats adoption agency, and are adoptable through this organization. Cat cafes are a great way to expose people to adoptable cats and find them a forever home. However, there weren’t many cats for the number of people in the appointment slot. There were five cats around, and about ten people.
As you can imagine, this made things a bit awkward—everyone filing in and trying to get the cat’s attention for the next hour. But the cats were lovely! Very friendly and personable. They had precious names like Stringbean, Bubbles and Strudel. Although I’m not in the market for a cat myself, it’s hard not to fall in love with such sweet kitties. They were clearly well-cared for and happy cats, and some of the people in my appointment slot seemed to be looking to adopt.
Overall, Nabi is a great idea, but could be done better. The space isn’t big enough, the appointments are tight and the hour-long experience isn’t enough to warrant $28. Truly, I could walk around the neighborhoods of Santa Clara and see more cats in 30 minutes than in my hour at Nabi.
Other cat cafes, like KitTea Cat Lounge in San Francisco, have many resident cats and more in-house activities that customers can book with the cats. Nabi is a very new space and has clearly created a loving and welcoming environment for both cats and people, but could be improved. I hope in the future they may have more cats to share the love with!