Kattakaffihúsið

The cat cafe in Reykjavík

May contain traces of advertising.*

The idea of ​​the cat café actually comes from Asia - here cat lovers who may not be able to keep their own cat can relax in a cozy atmosphere with coffee and cake in the company of cats. This is supposed to be good for the human soul - and homeless cats are often taken in here and can find a new person in the café.

The world's first cat café was opened in Taiwan in 1998, several other cafés followed, especially in Japan, and since 2012 there have been such cat cafés in more and more large cities in Europe.

Since a change in the Icelandic hygiene law in autumn 2017, it is also allowed to take pets into bars in Iceland, and on March 1st, 2018 the two owners opened the first cat coffee house, "Kattakaffihúsið" in Reykjavík, at Bergstaðastræti 10a, in the middle of the city center about 500 meters from Hallgrimskirkja.

There are always at least three cats living here, but when we were there we only met Felix and Nebba. The audience is mixed, many locals, many tourists who enthusiastically take photos, also many young families with children, but above all a relatively large number of women (of different ages, with and without children).

The large cat picture on the wall is by Helga Björnsson, one of Iceland's most famous fashion designers - who also happens to be the mother of one of the two café owners. In addition to the beautiful cat picture on the wall, she also designed cat cushions and cards, which you can also buy in the café.

The rules for interaction in the café are simple but clear: don't wake the cats up or pick them up if they don't want to! If it gets too much for the cats, there is also a cat flap and they can retreat.

Here the cat Felix sleeps contentedly on his chair amidst the hustle and bustle. Every now and then he stirred a little and risked an eye before he straightened himself out again.

Nebba, the second cat, is already 10 years old and I think her favorite place is on the counter.

We were a bit unlucky with the weather that day, it was a national holiday and it was pouring rain, so we wanted to escape to the cat café into the dry and warm a little earlier than planned. However, it wasn't just us and the cat café was completely full. We then waited a bit until a spot became available - at Felix's table, by the way.

First we were served hot drinks to warm up, a cup of café and a nice hot chocolate for me.

For cake, on the recommendation of the house, we were given a nice, large piece of Snickers cake. By the way, the cake, like some of the other pastries sold in Kattakaffihúsið, comes from the pastry shop "17 Sortir", which is located in Entrance 17 in the old storage rooms in Grandi and whose sweet cakes, tarts and cupcakes have already impressed me there laughed at so often.

There's only one thing left for me to say: Meow! Or as the Icelanders say: Mjá!

At a glance:

Kattakaffihúsið serves coffee and other hot and cold drinks, as well as various cakes, pastries and vegan sandwiches.

A piece of the Snickers cake currently costs 990 ISK (as of June 2018: around €7.90), a muffin costs 595 ISK and a chocolate brownie costs 600 ISK (around €4.70 each), a portion of banana bread, one Portion of chocolate cookies and a piece of lemon cake 690 ISK each (approx. €5.50). The vegan sandwich costs 990 ISK (around €7.90) and the large filled sourdough roll costs 1,200 ISK (around €9.50).

The filter coffee costs 400 ISK (around €3.20), as does a cup of tea, an espresso costs 500 ISK (around €4) and the hot cocoa costs 590 ISK (just under €4.70).

Kattakaffihúsið is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

* Legal notice:

Technically speaking, this is advertising because we were invited to dinner. But we only went to restaurants and bars that we had previously heard good things about and that we found exciting - for a variety of reasons. In that respect, we were honestly thrilled and when we burst into praise, we really mean it.



[Translated from here.]