Belgium may be small, but it already counts two cat cafés. The newest one, Mangakat Café, opened only recently, in February 2015, in the Brussels' borough Saint-Josse-ten-Noode. I stopped by yesterday and ended up reading cat manga the entire evening in the company of six adorable felines.
As the name Mangakat suggests, this is not your usual cat café. In fact, it's equally a manga café. They have a large selection of several types of manga that you can read for free while enjoying a drink and a piece of pie.
Of course, Mangakat Café has its fair share of cat manga, too. They have my absolute favorite,
Plum, but I ended up discovering and reading new ones, such as
Oh My Cats! and
Nyanpire.
The Mangakat Café is located in a gorgeous heritage building and gives you the impression that you're in someone's living room. It's super cozy, to say the least.
They have six cats: Yomi, Luz, Yuki, Lord, Sophie, and Domingo - all adopted from the
pet shelters Veeweyde and Animal sans logis. They're a combination of young and old, but they have all been chosen based on their sociable behavior.
On the food and drinks front, you have a large selection of tea and the usual drinks, as well as quiche and pie.
Tip: order quiche if you want some serious feline attention!
At walking distance from the metro Botanique in the center of
Brussels, Mangakat Café is also situated in the same building as De Ultieme Hallucinatie, a restaurant famous for its Art Nouveau decoration and vintage train seats. Ideally, you take an apéritif at the cat café/manga café first and then head downstairs for a meal at De Ultieme Hallucinatie. However, chances are you'll want to spend your entire evening at the Mangakat Café.
