My Lady, My Mistress, My Master: Feel Like the Lord of the Manor (or Lady, but really, let’s get serious, it’s catered for guys) at the @home Maid Café—the Akihabara Experience!

If Hooters didn’t have the boobs and the daisy dukes, they would be wearing a French maid outfit and working at the maid café.

We decided to finally check out one of the maid cafes we keep hearing about.  And while I’m sure pictures would do more justice to this experience, there was none to be had.  To the anime-newbie, let me first explain that the “maid” in this sense is more based on the fantasy cutesy girl from a Japanese anime who happened to be dressed up as a French maid.  Yep, a sexy French maid outfit.  Think French maid Halloween costume, but more cute than sexy—don’t get me wrong, there is a subtle hint of sexuality (or these cafes wouln’t exist), but really going more for the cute girl who calls you “Master” and “Lady.”

So, there are a LOT Of maid cafes to choose from in Akiba and Koko decided to take us to one called the @home maid café.  She claims that it is one of the first (if not THE first) maid café in Japan.  And it must be a super popular one.  First, unlike other maid cafes, I saw no maids hanging out in the streets to advertise their café.  And believe you me, there were several “maids” in the street that advertised their cafes.  Secondly, @home maid café had four floors of maid cafes in one building.  FOUR floors.  And yeah, we took a peek at each and every one of them.  We asked what the difference was between the floors and one of the proprietors says it has something to do with their theme and the uniform—honestly, I didn’t see any difference.

However, once we got to the last floor,  we decided to stick with that since we were there already—and climbing four flights of stairs can take the wind outta ya.  Once we’ve decided on the café, one of the girls greeted us and gave us a laminated paper with the list of rules for the café.  She asked that we read it first while she comes and gets one of the workers who was more fluent in English.  I will list below some of the rules as I remember them…and you can tell me if it reminds you of something else in the U.S. :

1. Do not initiate any physical contact with the maids.
2. Do not ask them for any personal information.
3. Do not ask them to go outside.  They are not allowed outside.
4. No photography.
5. A sitting fee of 700 yen per person is applied to the group once you come in.
6. You have a one hour limit to stay in the café
7. You must make an order.
8. No new orders will be taken 15 minutes before your departure.

Pretty strict, right?  Plus, it feels like a total ripoff to me, but heck, we were there for the experience.  So, because of the rules...this post has no pics..  Photography is something they charge for so I can understand.

Anyway, we went about ordering and Koko and I decided to share this fruit parfait while we got James one of the "packages."  What's in a "package" you might ask?  Well, it includes a) a drink, b) two desserts, c) a polaroid of you with your choice of maid, and d) a souvenir.

So...the review.

The parfait...was too sweet for me :(

My drink was a regular melon soda.  Really, what more can you say about a green carbonated drink?

The maids who served us...cute.  A couple of them very cute.  The one James chose for the photo was the cutest, I thought.

The souvenir...well, damn...I can't even remember what it was...

Anyway, for those of you who want some sort of photos of the place, here is a blog from a guy who was allowed to take photos:  At Home Maid Cafe blog by Danny Choo