Animal cafes are one of the biggest attractions in Seoul. Especially spread out through tourist areas you are bound to come across one while travelling here. Cat and puppy cafes are the most common, but there are also more exotic animals like raccoons, lizards, meerkats, and a variety of birds.
Our Experience
We went to two animal cafes tucked away in the side streets of Hongdae. Firstly we visited a café where there were two miniature sheep outside. The coffee was good, and the pancakes were even better! The sheep had a little barn set up outside the cafe with a fenced yard. Then they got even happier when they saw the keeper/barista coming with a bucket of hay. We highly recommend this café as it’s a relaxing environment with great food and coffee. We liked it so much we went back twice!
The second animal café was more of a petting zoo than a café, because there is no food/drink service. This is common, as most just use the term Cafe as a decorative word. Upon entering you rent a locker space to put your bags, jewelry, and shoes in. This “café” had foxes, raccoons, cats, a dog, a kangaroo, and meerkats. The dog and cats were free to roam around both floors. The foxes and raccoons were in rooms on the bottom floor with viewing windows. The raccoons were brought out and they did some tricks for some little treats, being very food driven they obeyed the handlers like little mischievous dogs.
The meerkats were upstairs in glass pens with little collars on. Only a few people are allowed into a pen at a time, and you had to sit with blankets covering your lap. Then the meerkats had a break between visitors. We went in and sat with about 4 meerkats as they scurried around. The handler warned us when we went in that the meerkats didn’t like high pitched voices. My (Mikayla’s) dolphin laugh unfortunately kept them away. But, they LOVED Cam, so much so that one fell asleep on his lap hugging him.
Important Information
Be careful in these cafes, animals are not toys and they can get cranky. When researching whether we should visit a raccoon café one worker said that there isn’t an inch on her body that hasn’t been bitten by a raccoon. Visit at your own risk.
When choosing a café realize that some have the word café as a gimmick, and most are basically petting zoos. The Korean government has changed the laws of pet cafes, and they now have to have a zoo license to operate. These laws are to encourage the welfare and humane treatment of animals. See more here.