Maid Cafes

One thing that you (probably) won't find in America, but is quite common in Japan, is a maid cafe. Yes, the place often associated with smelly otaku and every type of fanboy. Where girls dress up as maids and work to serve you hand and foot, sometimes literally cutting up your food and putting it in your mouth. Many outsiders may look at this scene as fulfilling some sort of sick fetish. To the Japanese, however, it's just another theme restaurant that happens to be popular, like ones with ninjas or prisoners. Sure, your friends might laugh when you mention that you're going (as some of my Japanese friends did), but they would go too... if you invited them.

So Jasmin and Erin mentioned their intentions of possibly opening a maid or cosplay cafe of some sort in the states, to bring a little Japanese love back home. And based on that, I decided to do my own hands-on research to help them out, and while I was at it invite a friend along for the ride. When I met up with him, however, he was with 2 other friends already, and I met another one at the train station, so that made 5 of us. Onward to the maid cafe!


I'd only been to a cafe like this one other time in my life, and that was with Jasmin, her cousin, and her cousin's boyfriend at a cat-themed maid cafe in Akihabara, Tokyo (which we found no thanks to the maids handing out flyers by the train station). Perhaps we didn't get the full service because we were with our partners, while most customers were guys who came in alone and looked depressed. The good part was that we were able to get away with one forbidden photo of our parfait before we were told to put our camera away. So to make sure Jasmin would be okay with this trip, I taped a picture of her to my shirt, right above a note card that read "I'm with her." XD


Maid Cafes consist of 2 main areas - an entrance/waiting area, and the dining area. When you first enter the doorway, the waitresses bow very deeply and say "irasshaimase, okyakusama, goshujinsama," which translates as "welcome, honorable guest, honorable master." The waiting area is actually a must, in order to welcome guests this way. These waitresses were dressed in cute maid costumes, long and modest to match the Victorian theme. The dining area continued this theme as a house, complete with fake window and nice curtains, and dressers where frames held pictures of waitresses in assorted costumes.

We were initially seated in separate areas (2 & 3 people), but when another couple left the maids pushed the tables together. Looking at the table provided a lot of insight into what kind of restaurant we were dealing with. There were bells with red ribbons for when we wanted something or were ready to place our orders. Next to the bells were cups of sugar to add to tea or other drinks, inside of which were cute colorful stars served with a heart-shaped spoon. The other silverware was lined with fancy embroidery, placed with the utmost care and delicacy. Hand wipes are also provided, but this isn't anything fancy as it's done virtually everywhere in Japan (no point to hand sanitizers ~_^). For those opening a Japanese-theme cafe, however, this point should be acknowledged and is a must do.

Which brings me to the food. As per usual in Japanese restaurants, water is brought out right away (another good idea for the US), but here there is a strong lemon flavor despite there being no actual lemon (it's poured from a large pitcher). The waitresses bring out a menu and initially hold it up and turn pages for you, then give it to you to look through yourself more carefully. Being a themed cafe, there's more emphasis on dessert than real food, but they have that too. On the menu their categories include: Regular Food, Hot Drinks, Cold Drinks, Daily Tea, Flavor Tea, Cake Set, Parfait, and Dessert. Their regular food includes things like curry, hamburgers, and toast, and runs between $5-10. Parfaits are their specialty though, and those average around $6 for a delicious combination of fruit, ice cream, cake, possibly cereal, etc. When it comes to pouring sauce like ketchup or chocolate on food, the waitresses will ask for suggestions on what to draw.

My friends and I discussed important things to keep in mind for theme restaurants like this, and whether it's maid or cosplay the costumes are going to be very important. They could, and should, be changed as time goes on, and we could even come up with various themes like anime, video games, and superheroes. However, since this is a place where people are working, these costumes should be provided by the employer to represent a group atmosphere. If people came in with their own, then the application process would become much more complicated and they might be turned away on the basis of a bad costume alone.

One thing that would be important to change is a stance on taking pictures. Inside the restaurant makes sense to prohibit because it could cause a disturbance, but in Japan even in the entrance way it's not allowed. I took one by the sign that included no part of the restaurant whatsoever, but since it was in the entrance way they made me delete it. So uncool.

Who would like to see us open a maid cafe in the states?

BTW, just found this article on a maid cafe in the states. Check it out.