← All articles · Thailand · 6 November 2025

Bangkok, Thailand: Coffee with capybaras and meerkats in Sukhumvit

A small animal cafe in Sukhumvit, Bangkok, where capybaras, meerkats and a bamboo rat share the table. No entry fee, you just order a drink off the menu.

We stumbled on this one in Sukhumvit and it felt like walking into a cartoon. There's no entry fee at all: you just order a coffee or a fresh coconut off the menu and sit down with the animals.

An afternoon with capybaras, meerkats and a bamboo rat in Sukhumvit. Watch on YouTube

The capybaras are permanently, magnificently unbothered. The meerkats are the opposite, and they will be in your bag before you've put it down. There's a bamboo rat too, taking its snack more seriously than anyone else in the room.

Inga crouching to hand-feed two capybaras under a wooden bench while a meerkat trots past on the artificial grass — Bangkok doesn't do things by halves: capybaras under the table, meerkats at your ankles.

A capybara chewing a length of lemongrass under a black metal table on artificial grass, a second one taking food from a hand beside it — Lemongrass, taken at capybara speed, which is to say no speed at all.

Inga sitting on a rock ledge beside a shallow indoor pool, reaching out to stroke a capybara standing at the water's edge — They get a whole pool and a little mud-brick house. Nobody here is having a bad day.

A small round furry rodent nibbling a piece of fruit on top of a green felt house at the capybara cafe — One of the smaller residents, taking its snack extremely seriously.

Three meerkats on a cushion and around a metal food bowl in an enclosure decorated with cacti and a painted savannah backdrop — The meerkat wing, complete with painted savannah and a suspiciously comfortable cushion.

Inga holding a meerkat in the crook of her arm like a baby, looking down at it and smiling — Held like a baby, entirely on its own terms.

Dileep in a straw trilby crouching on artificial grass to pet meerkats at the capybara cafe — Dileep making friends with middle management.

Dileep in a straw trilby laughing as a meerkat climbs over his arm and onto the backpack beside him on a bench — Straight over the arm and into the backpack. We got the bag back, eventually.

An hour in there costs you the price of a drink and buys you a very silly afternoon. We'd go back tomorrow.

More from this trip is on the Bangkok story, and the rest of Thailand is under Thailand.

There’s more from this trip on our YouTube channel, we film the real sights and sounds, no fluff. You’ll also find us on TikTok and Instagram.