Chow Cute Cafe, Singapore

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This was our 1st pet cafe. It was not only pet friendly, but they also had their resident dogs in the cafe.

The name of the cafe is “Chow Cute cafe” which comes from the name of the resident dog breed. It is located at “16 The oval Seletar Aerospace”. I believe that they initially started this cafe with this 1 resident Chow chow dog and as years went by, more dogs came into action. 

The original Chow chow dog is now 12 years old and he’s no more in the play section, since he’s old,  grumpy and he doesn’t want strangers petting him. He was a cross breed between Chow chow and German shepherd. This cafe also had other pet services like pet boarding, daycare, spa and grooming. And they also sold a variety of pet food products.

Chow Cute Cafe

The location of the cafe is further away from the busy tourist filled CBD. This cafe is tucked up North-North-East of Singapore near the Seletar Aerospace. This area seems to predominantly consist of small heritage colonial houses that are now converted to residence, offices and small businesses. There were a few other upmarket cafes, restaurants, bars nearby. This place is short walk away from a bus stop, so getting to the cafe is easy.

There was a lot of open space surrounding the building as soon as you enter the small gate. On the left side was a shelter with many round tables and chairs for outdoor dining or may be for organising parties or to be used during busier periods. There was an outdoor swing glider on the right side of the building. And 1 more completely closed shelter structure which we didn’t visit. 

This cafe was a 2 storey build with the staircase inside. There was 1 hand written board on the pet services they offered and another about the rules and regulations.  The 1st storey (or ground level) is where we can dine in. They had a mixtures of seating arrangements both indoor and out the back. Furthermore, they had a kitchen centrally positioned with a dedicated playroom for petting the resident dogs and a separate area with a shelf of board games (Yes, we can play the board games for free).

Apart from dogs, they also had 3 Chinchillas and a hamster in glass shelves in the same play room but we can’t play with them.

The second storey (level 2) is potentially where the dogs are actually kept. We aren't certain whether we can visit storey 2, but we saw all the resident dogs being brought downstairs for their morning walks.

We visited this cafe on 8th Jan, 2023 at 11am for brunch with a reservation. They checked our names and gave us the reserved table. Our table was right in front of the doggie play rooms door. We had a look at the menu, the price seemed to higher than your normal cafe. However, considering the fact that the cafe also provides board games and playtime with their resident dogs; we believe its worth the price. We ordered a starter, main, apple juice and a coffee. We also noticed that the cafe offered food options for pets.

The food arrived in a few minutes from the time we ordered. The buffalo wings were moist, well cooked and juicy and slightly sweet. The presentation of the main was beautiful with Japanese rice on a banana leaf topped with the prawns and a small separate bowl had the sambal. The prawns were nice and sambal was nice and spicy.

                       

The apple juice wasn’t a fresh juice. It was an ordinary apple juice which was transferred to a glass with some ice in it. The coffee wasn't on par with other cafes that provide specialty coffee. 

While having our brunch, a resident dog-walker brought 2 Chow chows (1 was black and another was light brown colour) around 11:20am. We petted them, and then he left them inside the room for people to play with them. There was no fixed time limit for people to stay with the dogs. You can stay and play as long as you want. Except, if it’s a very busy hour, and there area a lot of people, then there may be some sort of courtesy rotations for everyone to get a chance.

Since our food arrived, we decided to have our foods first and then play with the dogs later.

In some time, the dog-walker reappeared with 2 more black Chow chows. He brought them inside cafe, made them visit the guests and took them to the lawn for a walk, after which they were brought back upstars. It appeared that they had a total of 7 chow chows and 1 Samoyed. He kept bring 2 dogs at a time for walk and took them back to the 2nd storey as a part of their morning ritual. Similiar to the oldest Chow chow, there was also another dog which also didn’t like it when people touched him. So the dog-walker warned when he brought that dog to visit the guests. Except these 2 dogs, the others were very quiet and obedient to the dog-walker's commands. The Samoyed was the only dog that was very active, hyper and eager to enter the play room.

We entered the room twice. The 1st time there were 1 black and 1 brownish dogs. They were extremely quite and calm. We petted them and tried playing with them. But they didn’t seem to be very excited to see people. This is our first time chowchows so we have no idea how they behave in general. But they appeared to be sad. They kept going near the door every time someone entered or left the room like as though they wanted to leave the room. So we only spent very few mins with them.

The 2nd time we entered the room, the dog-walker came to shuffle the dogs while we were inside. He said the shuffle happens approximately every 2 hours but this time it was in an hour. He brought in the Samoyed and took the other 2 one by one. Before taking the dogs away, he also offered to take a picture of us with the dog. he also helped us with a photo. Thanks to him!

The Samoyed entered the room with full of excitement. He kept wagging his tail. He was the youngest of all. His name was “Bretley”. We were petting him, giving him massage, and kept licking my husband’s hand for a very long time. Then he started licking my hand too. It was a fun. We noticed that he had a spot for himself. After a while, he lied down on his spot. His excitement also reduced. And it appeared like he just wanted to sleep. 

Finally we came to the board games section. We tried a few puzzles. It was fun solving them. 

This pet cafe experience was good. We had a lot of observations.

• The food was overall good, but it shouldn't be the sole reason for visiting this cafe.
• The place was clean and the staff kept cleaning up after their dogs (if they drooled)
• The board games were nice. While some did not have proper instruction on them. The variety of card games, board games and general puzzles will mean that there is something for everyone.
• The unlimited time that can be spent with the dogs is a big plus. We can't help but feel a little sorry for the dogs as they are left in a room with strangers. The dogs seemed to loose their excitement quickly and keep moving towards the door to leave or curl up in their spots. Perhaps, if the dog-walker could be present more often; then dogs would feel secure.

With all of the observations, we would definitely recommend this cafe for families; especially with small kids as there is a lot of fun things to do while spending quality time with each other.

We also believe that this a good spot for pet owners to come out for a weekend brunch as the pet food menu was plentiful.

On the other hand, for those that would like to focus on playing with dogs only we believe the "What the Pug" would cater for those needs better. 

Here is the full video link about the cafe: