A CHINESE restaurant has been slammed for offering lion cub cuddles alongside afternoon tea – and they are not the only wild animals diners can pet.

Patrons at Wanhui Tower, based in Taiyuan city, offers a luxury tea service that includes a “mascot interaction” with lion cubs for a hefty price tag of £124.

Patrons have been posting selfies cradling the cubs on Chinese social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo, with some boasting they were also able to pet alpacas, deer, llamas and turtles – all while enjoying dessert.

But the restaurant’s bold move has triggered a flood of criticism and now a formal probe by the Shanxi Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau.

Although Wanhui Tower was granted a licence to breed and display two African lions, authorities said that close human-animal contact is prohibited and that the matter is being handled “urgently” – a phrase in China that often signals looming legal trouble.

But the restaurant, located in northern China’s Shanxi province, is doubling down.

The eatery claimed in a defiant statement: “We operate like zoos – why can’t lions be used commercially?”

Major animal rights groups have since pounced.

Jason Baker, Senior Vice President of PETA, said: “Tearing lion cubs from their mothers so diners can handle them over afternoon tea is exploitation, not entertainment.

“These animals are living, feeling beings, not toys.”

He added the cubs were being “treated like nothing more than social media props.”

Peter Li, China policy expert for Humane World for Animals, warned the stunt was “not only appallingly bad animal welfare, it’s also potentially risky for customers.”

“Even a young lion is capable of lashing out and injuring a human,” he said. “So, treating wild animals like props is both morally unacceptable and dangerously irresponsible.”

The controversy adds to a growing list of bizarre and troubling wildlife gimmicks at entertainment venues across China.

Earlier this year, police in Thailand raided a “lion café” in Phuket, arresting two Chinese nationals for illegally running a similar pet-a-cub scheme.

Guests there could snap photos with lion cubs for £12–£23.

Closer to home, a hotel near Chongqing drew fire after offering a “red panda wake-up call,” where guests could have the wild animals brought into their rooms and allowed to crawl into bed with them.

China’s zoos, too, are under the microscope.

In March, a “very big cat” incident sparked fury after footage of a shockingly obese black panther at Chengdu Zoo went viral.

The panther, aged 16, could barely walk, and social media lit up with criticism over her bloated condition.

One commenter quipped: “I thought she was pregnant, but it turned out that she was overweight. Please ask her to exercise more.”

Another zoo in Zibo, Shandong province, was caught painting donkeys with black and white stripes to pass them off as zebras – a stunt staff described as a “marketing strategy.”

Earlier this year, staff at Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu Province dyed chow chows to look like tiger cubs in a brazen attempt to fool visitors.

The same zoo previously painted puppies to look like pandas.