JOIN USIf you are a pet owner, you know that whenever you leave the house, there’s a sad pair of eyes giving you the look to cancel all your plans and stay with them instead. Maybe for that moment, you might even think of cancelling the plan because you don’t want to leave your pet alone. Unfortunately, you have to head out.
Thanks to a number of pet-friendly restaurants in the City, you can head out for a special pet-date with your best friend!
Many pet-lovers are opting for this as they can take their pooches to their favourite restaurants and have a worry-free time. Kannan Mehta, who works at Axiom Research Labs, often goes to ‘Au Bon Pain’ and ‘Om Made Cafe’ with her pets Biggie and Mufasa.
She says, “I go there at least once a week and they let me borrow containers for water. They also make boiled chicken chunks for them.”
There are also other restaurants like ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ who have a special menu for the visiting pets.
The founder of ‘Primeiro’, Preeti Bala, is a regular customer there. “My pets love the ‘Bacon Ice Cream’ they have on the menu. We also take our German Spitz, Poochy, and Pomeranian, Casper, to ‘Imli’ and ‘Toit’ sometimes. We prefer to sit outdoors so that both of them and others customers are comfortable and not disturbed,” she shares.
Though it’s a day out for the canines, there are customers who are not be comfortable with their presence.
A makeup artist, Yani Shrivastava, recalls an incident when she went to ‘Sunny’s Restaurant’.
She says, “Most of the pets that come to restaurants are well-behaved, but there might be one or two that you find otherwise. There was a time when one of the hyper ones started barking at a child and made the child cry. The owner was kind of startled as this has never happened before. But she handled it well and pacified the child.”
“Some of the big breeds that do come have sat in a very relaxed manner and have allowed other customers to take pictures with them as well,” she adds.
Pet parents hope that the restaurants, which claim to be pet-friendly, let the other customers know about it. They would also like it if there was a bit more space for the pooches to run around, some toys or a bowl of water for them.
Preeti says that ‘Sathya's’ in Koramangala used to be a pet-friendly restaurant, but had to stop as the pets were relieving and dirtying the area.
Despite the trouble, the pet-lovers are happy to take their furry babies on a fun-filled day out.
Tiya Thomas, an IT professional says, “I don’t own a dog because of my hectic work schedule. But I love going to pet-friendly restaurants and seeing others bring their babies. Dogs are known to relieve your stress, and by seeing them is sure a stress-buster!”