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Mr. is a cat lover; me, not so much, so I was quite surprised when we arrived at what seemed like a cat cafe. Our visit to Cafe Chat L’Heureux was completely unplanned and unexpected.

Upon further research, Cafe Chat L’Heureux is the first Cat Cafe Project in North America. Chat in French means cat. Not knowing any French, Mr. actually mistakenly thought Cafe Chat was a place to chat. You know, literally, chat. Even Tip, the girl in the animation Home, knows what chat means in French! He claimed that it wasn’t his master scheme to trick me so he could hang out with cats. Strike one. Oh, and this is a vegetarian restaurant! Strike two. Our marriage is off to a great start! 😛

Food

Even though Cafe Chat may be known for the kitties rather than its food and drinks, we did order some items to go with our kitty play time. My Latte was not bad, standard affair, but I started to realize the milk in Montreal is richer and has more flavour. Mr. went for the Passion Fruit Diabolo Juice, of which he was expecting some kind of juice form. Turns out it was just passion fruit flavoured soda; another example of lost in translation.

Food wise, we shared the Classic Grilled Cheese. It was an online picture of this grilled cheese that lured me to the restaurant. Priorities, huh?! Haha! This, to our surprise, tasted as good as it looked! The cheese was medium cheddar, slightly pungent, gooey; bread was grilled nicely, crispy and crunchy. The salad was simple, but the vinaigrette dressing was nicely seasoned. It was a satisfying plate.

Atmosphere

The set up of Cafe Chat is quite straightforward. As soon as you arrive, you will be greeted with some instructions on what to expect and how to interact with the cats.

There are also pictures of the cats that you may find inside the restaurant. The cats here were carefully selected and being adopted to be the hosts of the restaurant.

The cats can move around freely inside the restaurant, so we’ve found them chilling up high on the shelves, visiting each table, or even snoozing in bed. The cats were friendly, as long as we don’t do anything that irritates them; they’re also curious, as they may take a closer look at your purse and backpack or simply play with the straps. Of course, Mr. was having so much fun at the cafe, hopping from one cat to another. Even though I’m not a cat person, I wasn’t intimated by the environment. I think the purr-therapy was working on me.

Final Thoughts

If you are a cat lover, you will like one of these cat cafes! Vancouver is about to have our first cat cafe this year, so I look forward to checking it out (Mr. would be happy to hear this) and comparing the two.

Cafe Chat L’Heureux
172 Ave Duluth Est, Montréal, Quebec
438-333-1505
www.cafechatlheureux.com