Mia's Review: The Lab

Well, it has been more than a month or two (during the Ramadan month) since my visit on a friday night to the highly raved The Lab, located at Jalan Pisang, and I did think about not putting up this review because.... I can't really give you an accurate review of how The Lab did the food they've served me. So I might as well turn this into a rant of poor service I've experienced that fateful night, alright? 

First up, the place did look pretty nice at the indoor seating area, but it so happens we were given the alfreso seating set up in the alleyway....

Which was perfectly fine, still. I understand about the lack of space and trying to maximise space usage, so cramming 5 guests at a very small table is alright... I reckon. 

And since we visited during the Ramadan month, we decided to go for the special Lftar Dinner Set at only $38 nett per pax that comes with a starter, mains, dessert and a drink. 

Kiwi Cucumber Spritzer

Probably the best thing I've had that night, even though it still tasted pretty wash down. I guess it's because ALL the ice has melted and diluted the entire drink. But the refreshing taste of cucumber with the appetizing tangy flavour of kiwi is still detectable. 

Baked Mussels

Packed full with tomato based sauce, it could have been quite an enjoyable dish, for I'm a huge mussel lover, if only it weren't all cold and rubbery. 

Lamb Chop with Pilaf Rice

The coldness of the whole dish apart, the lamb chop was OBVIOUSLY overcooked (or perhaps reheated too many times) until I couldn't decide if I was chewing on food, or rubber. At some point I totally gave up on chewing down the meat properly and risk getting choked by swallowing the huge chunk of meat down. Don't even thinking of reminding me that I should have cut them into smaller, bite size. It was also near unslice-able (if there is such a word) with the dining knife that I had to pick it up by the bone and tearing the meat off like a hungry dog. 

Sticky Date Pudding with Ice Cream & Pistachios

I believe the ice cream is in pistachio flavour, which is really not bad. But not the sticky date pudding. Well, too sweet, and too sickeningly moist. Not my favourite kind of dessert, In fact, nobody at the table finished their desserts. 

Speaks a lot. 

And now, to my experience of a truly poor service.

Well, my friends happen to be early and got seated slightly before 7pm, much earlier than our reservation of 730pm. 

And guess what, even though NOT all guests were seated (I was obviously not early, and in fact, LATE and another friend was also running late although she reached earlier than me in the end) they started serving the food. 

And guess whose food got served first? MINE. 

"It's weird how they serve here. They serve ghosts before the seated patrons."

This was what one of my friends texted along with a picture of my sad looking mussels and lamb chop sitting at the table. 

So my food got served at 7pm and I reached at about 745pm, just 15 minutes later than our reservation and I had to settle for cold, rubbery food. 

And mind you, I did ask my friends to request that they keep my food first to keep them warm because I obviously was not going to reach early enough to have them while they're still hot, and apparently the server replied, "But I can only reheat the food once."

Wait, what? 

You just need to keep the food first, wait until I got seated, then you can reheat the food just that one time and serve, yeah? 

But of course, that didn't happen. Was it because they've already hit the quota of reheating the food before the served it to our table or what, I don't even care anymore. I can be just damned sure that I will never ever return to this darned cafe, ever again. 

And you know what, I'm not even going to tell you their exact address or give you the link to their website or FB page. If you're a fan of poor service and cold, rubbery food. Just go google about them on your own. kthxbye.

Till then, 

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Meomi Cat Cafe

Yup, the animal crazy Mia has visited yet another cat cafe!

 -credits to MEOMI-

This time, it's the newly opened Meomi Cat Cafe, located at North Bridge Road. They've officially opened on 22nd August, and the extremely kiasu me actually chat them up and managed to reserve slots on Saturday night. Whee~ :)

 -credits to MEOMI-

And here are their charges. As you can see, they're actually more expensive than The Cat Cafe ($15, flat, with complimentary soft drink) and can be considered 'on par' or slightly cheaper than Neko No Niwa ($12 for 1st hour with no complimentary drinks), for the additional dollar for the first hour actually gives you a drink. 

And sadly, due to a camera malfunction, I didn't get any shots of the cafe itself. Boo, I thought I managed to snap pictures of the cafe interior, but I just ended up with an empty memory card. T.T 

My first impression of this cafe was: Whoa, so small? 

I was first greeted with this 4-door shoe rack at the shop front, along with another shelf selling cute novelty items with cat prints, like pouches and etc, right opposite. After which comes the cashier counter and after it is the glass door that leads to the cats' area.

Indeed, this is the smallest of the 3 cat cafes I've visited, and with the upcoming Cuddles Cat Cafe at Scape boasting a whopping 2,500 sq ft area, Meomi Cat Cafe seemed (or rather, sounded) even smaller. But later on I became enlightened on why being small pretty much ended up as their cutting edge. 

The cats' area was lined by floor cushioned bench seats at the 2 sides, along with really small tables for patrons to leave their drinks/food. A rough gauge tells me that it can only comfortably house at most 20 (or just slightly over 20) patrons at one go. 

Coming from the cats' welfare, this is actually a huge plus point for them, as it not only prevents them from being overwhelmed by large number of strangers trying to harass play with them all at the same time, but also allows the staff to keep a lookout for misbehaving patrons. 

All right, let's move on to my experience at the cafe, shall we? 

Upon entering, we were asked to choose a tag (I chose Junior, the Scottish Fold!) for a form of identification (ordering and billing) purposes and issued a ticket stating our time of entry. 

After a quick briefing of the Dos and Don'ts (they have a house rule put up on the wall as well), we were then asked to leave our shoes at the shoe rack and sanitize our hands before entering the cats' section. 

Our complimentary drinks (choice of orange or lime) sitting on the really small table, and Curley perched at the back. 

And at a corner, right in front of the washroom (both humans' and the cats'), is the cats' toys section. I'll highly recommend getting the 'cat wand' with a dragonfly/butterfly at the tip as the cats seemed to like them best as compared to everything else (apart from Mario, whose favourite is a ball). 

When I got there at 7pm, all the cats were up and actively playing and interacting with the patrons. Let's start with the cats' introduction, shall we?

 -credits to MEOMI-

First up, Junior the Scottish Fold. This boy is also the maknae (youngest) of the group. 

I had to use this shot from the cafe management because it's so cute and it totally reflects Junior's temperament. 

Junior is a very chillax, bochup boy. This was taken a while after their meal time at 730pm and he just flop down on his back, belly up legs splayed and dozed off for... a little while. 

I love his coat pattern, a nearly artistic spray of black among grey. And it's really soft too! 

 But of course, a cat will still be a cat. Play time!

Trying in the most chillax manner to catch the butterfly at the tip of the wand.

*gimme that gimme that... MEOW!*

Haha, Junior looked so adorable I just had to upload both the videos I took of him. I was totally multi tasking! Swirling the wand, videoing, and laughing at how cute he looked. 

Another picture of Junior multi-tasking as well. Doing splits while catching the cat toy. *rofl*

Oreo, the American Shorthair. It took me a while to differentiate between Junior and her, due to the similar coat pattern. 

But of course, Oreo is actually visibly smaller than Junior and is an extremely shy girl. This explains why this is the only decent shot I have of her. According to the staff, Oreo is the only cat that doesn't allow her humans to carry her. 

So, try to 'catch' her if you can. But of course, patrons are NOT supposed to be carrying the cats at all. ;p

Next up is an American Curl, Curley!
This cute, playful girl is named so because of her cute curled up ears. And if you noticed, she has a 'tiger left paw' too! 

 Curley half chilling-half staring at me while Junior and Mario unknowingly photobombed her. 

Yes, Curley seemed to love chilling beside this particular cat toy. 

And let's see Curley in action with the butterfly! 

Another one of my favourites, Mario the Munchkin! Look at his adorable short legs and nugget-like paws. 

Sociable yet not exceptionally playful, Mario does react well to the well-loved butterfly....

 Stalk, stalk, stalk, stalk...

Caught it! Meooww!

But, Mario actually loves another toy much more. Way more than this pesky butterfly. And the staff calls it, the Mario Ball!

Basically you get the ball, throw it up to the highest shelf in the cafe, and Mario will fetch it down for you!

Seeing is believing. That's the Mario Ball in his mouth as he made his way back to ground after retrieving the ball. 

And of course, as I've said, Mario does like the butterfly too. :)

Then there's Coo, the Maine Coon, and also the largest cat in the group. 

The fluffy ring of white around her neck actually reminded me of a lion's mane. But Coo is a girl! 

As compared to Mario, Junior and Curley, Coo seemed more aloof, just like a Queen. See me waving that cat toy like crazy (yellow-green-blue blur) and yet she just lay there, full of poise, and staring straight at the camera like a supermodel.

Great job, Coo. Nice. 

And apart from her white ring of fur around her neck, Coo also has distinctive rings of white fur on her paws! It made her look as if she's wearing white socks (She's an MJ fan?) all the time. 

And of course, the Queen has her own fetish. It seems like she kind of prefers black socks instead? 

And there's Frowny, the Ragamuffin! 

I don't understand why she's called Frowny actually. She has such a pretty face and princessy demeanor. Plus, a pair of soleful blue eyes. Aww...

The poor girl was having diarrhoea that day and she was randomly spurting loose stools all over the place. She wasn't very happy about getting cleaned, though she didn't really kick up a ruckus.

But not to worry, she's definitely eating well. Love all that fluffiness, especially in that tail!

And she was also fairly active that night, even trying to go after the Mario Ball.

Lastly, there's Luna, the local breed!
I'll say she's definitely one of the more hyperactive cats here, which explains why this is really the best shot I could get that has her totally fitting into the shot and not in a blurry mess.

Like so.
She was getting all hyped up over the toy and leaped up to catch it. Very active indeed!

And what did I say happened at 730pm?
Dinner time!

Luna actually didn't really like wet food, so the staff topped up the dried food bowl for her.

And what's after a meal?

Some cleaning up?

Curley goes nom nom nom...

Mario goes nom nom too....

And Junior totally nailed it with the ever so carefree bochupness.

And only after the biggest eater, Junior, has polished up every remaining scrabs of food, Curley came searching for more. Haha!

And for Coo, what's after dinner? TV time!

When the staff came over with a remote control, saying it's cat's TV time, I thought he's going to air some cats related TV programme. Little did I know that it's literally a show meant for the cats, involving loud mice squeaks and many hamsters and rodents running on and off screen.
And according to the staff, Coo is the usual fan. And true enough, once the mice squeaks sounded, she immediately pranced over to the TV and sat down, watching the TV screen intently.

And apparently, being at the floor wasn't close enough. She even jumped on top of the box to watch!
How adorable!

And now on my thoughts on Meomi.
I really liked how it's done up simple, small and cozy. The small size really made it easier for patrons to spot and interact with cats. And of course, the cafe was fully installed with high 'wall-bridges' for the cats to escape from the human clutches whenever they feel overwhelmed.

The staff (cat-keeper on shift) did spend a substantial time inside the cats' section over the 2 hours I was there, but it didn't felt suffocating or stressful (to the patrons) at all. In fact, he was extremely approachable and was interacting more with the patrons, introducing the cats and their special tricks/behaviours to the patrons, genuinely seeking feedback from the patrons and etc, rather than hogging the cats, as observed by some, at the other cat cafe.
There was also NO children (much less to speak of rowdy children traumatizing the cats) around when I was there, even though Meomi does welcome 'little humans' as well, and even gives a special discounted rates to kids.

And then on the issue of cat-sources. I've been following ALL the cat cafes on facebook, officially opened or not, and apparently there's already one who has received some negative comments, declaring 'no support' simply because most of their cats were bought from pet shops and not adopted.
And it's also pretty obvious that most of the cats at Meomi are pedigree, bought from pet shops. However, they did attempt to adopt from rescue shelters but were turned away when the shelter found out that they're adopting cats for a business entity.
And after much thought on this, I actually agree with the shelter's decision. I'm pretty much also a 'Adopt, Don't Shop' person when it comes to pets. But to adopt mature cats with a history, and possibly highly individualistic temperaments, as a pet cafe's resident cats really can be worrisome for the shelter, as the cat's quality of life after adoption pretty much rounds up to a question mark.
Can a group of animal-loving entrepreneurs re-train these rescued cats into highly sociable, human-loving, playful and yet gentle and mild temperamental cats that are ideal for a pet cafe? Is it even fair for the rescued cats to be mass adopted into a business entity instead of getting a proper home to itself in the first place?

And I shall leave that to your own thoughts. But feel free to leave a comment and throw me your opinions to carry on with the discussion, if desired.

And lastly, Meomi also has a loyalty programme, issuing this 'Friends of Meomi Loyalty Card' to all patrons and awarding them one stamp per $15 spent. And with every 4 stamps, you'll be entitled to a reward that ranges from a free 1/2 entry to a full day entry + drink + pastry!
And the card itself is so adorable, with the 2 meowscots gracing the 'cover' of it.

Meomi Cat Cafe is located at 668 North Bridge Road.
For more information, visit their Facebook page HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: The Cat Cafe @ Bugis Village

If you didn't know, I've reviewed on the first cat cafe in singapore (Neko No Niwa, located at boat quay) a while back HERE. And after knowing that the 2nd cat cafe has officially opened, I was like, "OMG, I have to go!"

Well, the 3rd is opening real soon and 4th opening coming August... So I reckon I will have lots of meow-hopping to do real soon. 

But first, let's get on with The Cat Cafe, shall we?

Located conveniently at Bugis Village, above Burger King (you turn left when facing BK and go up to the 3rd floor at the staircase), I'll say this cafe has won the pioneer in terms of location from an Eastie's POV. Significantly less walking from the MRT station too, yay! 

T was totally awed by the coffee machine when he first stepped into the cafe. He literally went, "Whoa, chio!" at the machine and the lady boss was actually nice enough to entertain him. =.=" 

Fees for The Cat Cafe is just a one-time entrance fee of $15, one soft drink included. You may top up for coffee or other hot drinks and get some yummy pastry to eat while inside the cats' area. 

Before entering the cats' section, we're given a laminated piece of paper stating the cafe's rules with regards to handling of cats to read through, and then handed over to the "cat-keeper" (staff stationed inside the cats' area), who asked us to remove our shoes and either change into their rubber slippers or we may choose to go barefoot. Lastly, we had to sanitize our hands with the hand sanitizer provided and viola, we're good to go! 

We were given a low table by the window and our food and drinks were served after a short while. 

T got his usual Latte while I went for the Caramel Carameow Latte. 

Their coffee isn't fantastic, but it's really not bad. Pretty strong coffee taste with a generous amount of caramel added to give it a rich sweetness. 

And we also got their Salted Caramel Chocolate Chiffon cake to share, which was highly recommended by the boss herself. I actually wasn't hungry at all (pretty full in fact). But hearing not just chocolate, but also salted caramel, and I was like, "Okay, that too!"

The lady boss's recommendation didn't disappoint us. This is really good! The chiffon cake is soft, fluffy and a little moist, packed with chocolate fragrance and a slight hint of the chocolatey sweetness. The chocolate taste actually isn't rich or sweet at all, but that's the characteristic of such flavoured chiffon cakes. As for the salted caramel cream frosting, it was yummy~! I'm a total sucker for salted caramel AND chocolate, and this cake totally nailed it. The glob of Dulce de Leche at the top sprinkled with some coarse sea salt just perfected it all. 

Didn't manage to take an overall picture of the cafe as it was full house when we visited on a Saturday evening (waited 1 hour on waiting list). But I took these pictures of the windows upon noticing the cute glass decoration of their cafe mascot, the fat ginger kitty. Heeheehee! 

The cafe is also filled with low to high wall shelves and "overhead bridges" for tired/annoyed cats to escape from the human clutches.

And now, let's introduce the kitties, shall we?

 First kitty we met is this 'ginger skinny one', which I didn't find out her name (if you're interested you can check out the The Cat Cafe), who was hogging T's seat.

Level of seat-hogging: Ultimatium.
Apart from being very comfortably seated facing T's crotch for a good 30 minutes, she also was very interested in sniffing M's butt (shared by Oyhz) when they were there a few days after my visit. HAHAHA!

At one point she was even licking T's hand merrily.

 The second kitty we met was this really sleepy kitty, who jumped onto the kitty bed behind my seat and just slept away until their feeding time at around 7pm.

And there's also this 'greedy kitty', who not only came by T's bag for a good sniffing multiple times, eyed the cake on our table hungrily, and eventually managed to snatch a bite of some half eaten cake off the other patrons' table. And that's her punishment for her greediness, for like.... 5 minutes?

I love how Silver looks like when she's napping....

And how she grooms herself after feeding time! Aww....

 Here's Tuxedo, the biggest of the 14 resident cats at The Cat Cafe.

 Here's Jimmy AKA Garfield, Tuxedo's buddy. I found them napping together, cuddled up at one corner of the cafe when I first arrived. Aww...
And Jimmy doesn't really enjoy getting pets. He was swiping away the girl's hand in the first picture.

Elly, with the totally "HUH?" look on her face. Hahaha! She loves to prance around on the railing while we're there, hardly touching down on solid grounds.

Another sleepy cat, who napped on this 'overhead bridge' until feeding time...

Another cat, whose name I don't know. She (I assume) has striking blue eyes, so pretty! Wave a cat toy at her and she'll start playing!

And at about 6:30pm, we suddenly realised that all the cats are 'gone'. Turns out they've all gathered around the feeding area to wait for food!

The mass meowing of these hungry cats when the staff came in with stacks of cat food was so cute. And during feeding time, this particular greedy black cat caught my attention. She gobbled down her food at amazing speed (first to finish) and stealthily went on to steal bites from other slower-eaters.

Immediately after feeding, we found this cutie chillaxing in the cat house. Such a cute face!

Jimmy then got into a fight with another cat over the roller-tunnel.

And soon after feeding time, their snack-feeding time starts! Do note that the cafe management limits the amount of snacks sold, so if you really wish to feed the cats, go earlier in the day (when I went at 5pm the day snacks were already sold out) or in the evening right after their feeding time at 6 plus 7pm.

 The snacks is actually a small bowl of wet cat food that resembles our canned tuna. Even overheard a male patron mumbling, "Wah, I really feel like finding 2 pieces of bread to kiap these..."
Do take note that the cats might get a little too excited (claws out, as seen on bottom left... THAT greedy cat!) and will fight over the snacks. The two female patrons, whom I really have insufficient photoshop skills to crop out (sorry!), were both scratched by the cats while they fought for the spoons.
So, take note yeah?

And lastly, do make sure you keep your shoes properly. You'll never know which cat has a ribbon fetish. 

And now, my thoughts on this 2nd cat cafe in Singapore. Needless to say, they win the pioneer hands down for me. Not just in terms of pricing and location, but the service as well. Hey, this is still a cafe business alright? There's been some harsh criticism by some patrons (actually I don't even know if they're really patrons in the first place), crying cat abuse because the cafe management is too slack on correcting misbehaviours in patrons, especially of young kids.

True enough, when I was there on a Saturday evening, there was an alarmingly large number (compared to the other cat cafe, which I also visited on a weekend, around the same timing) of children. Rowdy children, who were clearly mishandling the cats, terrorising them. I vividly remember this young boy, I reckon to be in lower primary school, who was ruffling Elly's back really roughly while she's perched on the railing.
Once, Elly twisted and stared at his hand.
Twice, Elly once again twisted and the boss told him to stop it.
Yet, he went for the third time.
I was like... boy, do you understand simple English?
Elly raised a paw and the boss quickly reached out her hand and grabbed the boy's hand and put it away, reminding him a 2nd time to stop the misbehaviour.
And the boy's mother turned and stared at the boss and she had to quickly explain, apologetically, that she had to do it because the cat will smack the boy this time round.
Like, WHAT?
Hello, parents... You don't want to (too lazy to?) discipline your kids and yet doesn't like others to do it for you. So what you want?

Now back to the criticisms. Some even compared them to the pioneer, and praised the latter for doing a good job in protecting the cats' welfare, and even went on to saything things like, 'if you cannot get your priorities right, don't try to make money off animals.'
Okay, I suppose this person is against all zoos in the world as well?

I personally don't go very well with the cafe's insistence on allowing kids of 6 years old and above to enter, with the idea of cultivating the love towards cats in children. I feel that that's the sole responsibility of parents and it's really too idealistic on the cafe management's part to want to achieve something so big.
But then again, I respect their big-heartedness and I agree that what's now is to find the balance between caring for the cats' welfare and being customer-oriented. They're not a cat rescue centre. They're a cafe with 14 cats. They're effectively a cafe, still a business, that relies on paying customers to keep going.
And to be very honest, The Cat Cafe is obviously not there yet, but their efforts to make it happen is still worth our warm support.

Till then,
Mia

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