Bunnies and brew: Hong Kong’s first rabbit cafe opens

Hong Kong's first rabbit cafe opened in a small upstairs space over the busy commercial district of Causeway Bay.

Serving different combos, the each set comes with a rabbit snack.

Inspired by a similar cafe on Japan's famous ''rabbit island'', Ricky Lam and his friends decided to bring a rabbit cafe to Hong Kong.

"We went to Okunoshima in Japan last year, and we were inspired by the atmosphere when having meal with rabbits which could be a pretty relaxing. Also we all know abandoning rabbits is common so over half of rabbits in our cafe were adopted," he said.

Lam also said they have a list of rules customers have to follow before playing with the rabbits, including not pulling their ears or picking them up by the ears.

Providing the experience to play with bunnies is attracting animal lovers and people considering whether to keep rabbit as their pet.

Lis Liu brought her two daughters to the cafe.

''It is the first rabbit restaurant in Hong Kong and here we come. Because my girls they want [to] have rabbits as their pets, so I just take them here and to have a look of rabbits,' she said. ''I think the rabbits are cute and I like them and I like the drinks and I like the food.'' Tiana's sister Charlotte also like rabbits, admitted, ''I like rabbits because they are very cute. I like feeding them, and they are very soft and fluffy," she said.

However, rabbits are very fragile animals, and they can suffer severe physiological reactions to fear or stress according to founder of Dr. Hugh's Veterinary Hospital Dr. Hugh Stanley.

''The rabbits in the cafe, the rabbits are prey species and they get very easily stressed. The diet is very important because they get sick very easily. I don't know what the set up in the cafe is. It may be wonderful; the rabbits might be kept separate from people. It may work but it has to be managed extremely well to avoid stress and disease in the individual rabbits in the cafe," he said.

Lam said that the cafe, which opened in June, is so popular people need to make reservations. — Reuters