The Barking Lot Cafe

Most people are familiar with the cat café in Hong Kong, a restaurant where little felines are allowed to roam free and interact with diners. Well, did you know that there’s a dog café too? The concept isn’t entirely the same — it’s the brainchild of SPCA and HK Animal Speak, and there’s a section in the café that’s a dog adoption center and people can come in to play with the dogs. The place is more so for people to interact with the dogs, possibly adopt them, and learn about proper care for animals rather than to actually have a meal.
For my friend’s birthday, we decided to make a trip here because my friend loves dogs, so we thought it would be a nice birthday surprise. I met up with my friends here and actually trekked the whole of Stanley before finding it — the café isn’t facing the sea at where the restaurants are, which is where I imagined it to be. Instead, it’s actually hidden inside the market, though you do have to make a turn up to a little hill.
It’s hard to describe, but basically start walking into the market with all the souvenir shops from where Watsons and Seven Eleven are. About five minutes in, keep an eye out for an overhead sign that reads ‘Barking Lot Café’ with an SPCA logo. It’s not the most obvious signage in the world, but it’s there. I actually walked right past the sign my first time around and had to come back again when my friend described where it was!
The café isn’t what I imagined it to be — I expected it to be kind of like the cat café, but it’s actually a tiny little space with two tables pushed together and a couple of tables around it. This area isn’t air conditioned. But connected to it is a little room where there are two adorable puppies! They’re enclosed behind glass, but we’re allowed to go inside and play with them. The two dogs, Puff and Daisy, were friendly and seemed to be pretty well taken care of. Daisy was the calmer of the two dogs — Puff was rather boisterous and active, and wouldn’t stop moving around! We all had a great time playing with the dogs and it was clear from my friend’s face that we had succeeded in delivering a good birthday surprise!
Even though it is called the Barking Lot Café, they really only serve drinks like coffee and Snapple tea. They’re $ 20 each, and the coffee is Nespresso — can’t go wrong with that! I heard that it’s possible for you to order food at one of the restaurants nearby and have it delivered here.
Overall, I would recommend the Barking Lot Café for any dog lover out there. Even if you’re not, it’s worth coming here and just playing with them for a little while — after that, you can spend the day exploring Stanley, which is a pleasantly different environment from the rest of the bustling city!