A family restaurant in Querétaro that announced Mexico's first live-capybara sessions, got publicly taken apart for it, and appears to have quietly not done it. The food is fine. The story is the point.
Roughly 09:00-19:00, with the kitchen reported closing around 16:00. Hours come from listing sites rather than the venue, so confirm on Instagram. Free on-site parking.
Listed here mainly so you know what happened, and what did not.
What it is now
A family-friendly cafe and restaurant in the El Campanario development in Santiago de Querétaro. Healthy plates, burgers, pizza, coffee, desserts, free parking, and activities aimed at kids — drawing capybaras, gachapon machines. Pleasant, unremarkable, and themed rather than inhabited.
We list it as themed because that is what every verifiable source describes. Which brings us to the part that made it briefly famous.
The 2025 announcement
In March 2025 the cafe posted that it would soon be "the first cafe with capybaras in Mexico", bringing animals in so customers could touch them and take photos. The format described was fifteen minutes, four people maximum per session, at 150 pesos a head.
The reaction was not what they expected. Mexican outlets including El Universal Querétaro and AlertaQro covered the backlash, and the cafe responded that the animals were captive-bred rather than taken from the wild, were under specialist care, and would not live on site — they would only visit occasionally.
They post more than we do
The only channel that reliably says whether the place is open and what is actually on offer. Their own website has a broken certificate, so this is it.
No source we can find confirms the sessions ever ran. Not the cafe's own channels, not the local press that covered the announcement, not a single review describing a visit that included an animal. A related Capybara Café location in Mexico City, at Londres 187 in Colonia Juárez, is reported to have closed on 30 March 2026.
So do not travel to Querétaro to meet a capybara. If the sessions are running, nobody has documented it; if they were dropped after the criticism, that is the outcome the criticism was aiming at. Either way, plan for a themed restaurant, and treat anything else as a surprise.
Good to know
Assume no live capybaras. The announced sessions have never been confirmed to have happened.
The venue's own website has a broken TLS certificate. Instagram is the working channel.
The Mexico City location at Londres 187 is reported closed as of 30 March 2026.
Listed as unverified — hours and status come from third-party listings, not the venue.
Published on September 2, 2026By Grumpy Capy
FAQ
Can I meet a real capybara at Capybara Café in Querétaro?
Almost certainly not. The cafe announced live-capybara sessions in March 2025 at 150 pesos for fifteen minutes, but the plan drew significant animal-welfare criticism and no source confirms the sessions ever ran. Plan for a themed restaurant.
What was the controversy?
The March 2025 announcement of hands-on capybara sessions prompted public concern in Mexican media over animal welfare. The cafe replied that the animals were captive-bred, specialist-cared-for, and would visit rather than live on site.
Is the Mexico City branch open?
Reports say the Londres 187 location in Colonia Juárez closed on 30 March 2026. The Querétaro venue appears to still be operating.
Details change – always confirm hours, prices, and booking on the official site before you travel. Animal encounters are subject to each venue's welfare rules.
Keep exploring
More capybara cafes
Other real-world spots where you can be in the same room as a very calm rodent.
A plushie-buried Korean-style drinks counter on Sainte-Catherine with two or three seats, capybara merch, and nothing on the menu over eight dollars. Takeout in practice.
A capivara-themed cafe built into the Rio Pinheiros cycle path in São Paulo, funding the NGO that protects the wild capybaras living on the riverbank about thirty metres away.
Peru's capybara cafe, in the Cayma district of Arequipa, with a second counter inside the mall. Waffles, desserts, Peruvian coffee, open until half nine, and no actual capybaras.
A matcha and Vietnamese coffee bar in Folsom, California, built around capybara mascots and a lot of plushies. Open daily until nine, and there is not a live capybara in the building.
A capybara-themed boba and ramen house outside Chicago with fifty-plus claw machines and a photo booth. Chaotic, open until eleven, and entirely capybara-free in the animal sense.
Guides worth the screenshot, mildly cursed finds, and the occasional
photo of a capybara in a hot spring. We email at capybara speed -
slow, occasional, unbothered.
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