The first thing you will notice about this place is the unusual way to get into the cafe. For maid cafes, you normally enter a building, and the first thing you see is an elevator that will take you to the desired floor. However, the big difference with this place is that you need to enter a gachapon (those machines in which you put money to get a capsule with a random toy inside) store called “Gee Store”, walk to the far end of the store and then you will see the elevator. This small detail may be a little bit confusing, but once inside, it’s a maid cafe.

This cafe is located on the sixth floor of the building, and the elevator is rigged so a chime rings as the elevator door opens. Once inside, a girl will take you inside and show you to your table.

The layout can be though of a simple rectangle with several tables for two or four, with unobstrusive divisions between every few tables, which I really appreciate as they give you a somewhat better sense of privacy. A rough count indicates that some 30 people can fit inside the cafe, which is neither small nor large. Quite like the average size for a maid cafe.

As I mentioned before, I would classify this cafe as a formal style cafe. The maids sport relatively unadorned long skirt victorian style uniforms, they are very formal in their way of addressing you and in the way they move around, and the menu is quite elegant.

I’ve been now several times to this cafe. The first time was last summer, when they were celebrating an Evangelion themed event. As you can see on the picture here, I ordered a cheesecake with a NERV design drawn in cocoa powder. As you can see, they are very careful with all the details, the logo on the plate is at the top, the four spots of chocolate syrup in the plate are perfect, and pretty much everything is well taken care of.

Now, you may ask yourself why do I have pictures inside the cafe, when pictures are usually forbidden? Well, Cure Maid Café is so far the only maid cafe I know of, which lets you take pictures inside, with your camera. Pictures of the maids and other guests are forbidden, but anything else is fine. HOWEVER, you must ask any of the maids for permission BEFORE you take your picture, and they will ask you to show them the picture afterwards. After they verify there are no problems with your picture, it is yours to keep. Of course, this is free of charge.

Food is very good and reasonably priced. They have separate lunch, teatime and dinner menus, exchanged at  3 pm and then at 5 pm.  Prices range for food from 800 to 1000 yen, soft drinks go at around 400 yen, while alcoholic drinks go for 500 yen. This is similar in price, or even less expensive than other regular cafes in Japan such as Doutor and Pronto.  They also offer dinner sets from 2000 to 4000 yen.

There is no table charge, and takeout is available only for cakes (except for chiffon cakes), with a minimum order of 2 cakes. Takeout is not available on the midsummer because of the heat though.

I tried the cutlet curry rice, and it was very good, with a nice quantity of food. I did find the lack of pickles (tsukemono)  for the curry a little bit disappointing though.

Even though it is a very formal cafe, and I have not seen further interaction between the maids and the clients apart from the orders, they still focus on the otaku culture with a large amount of events, such as the Evangelion one I talked about before, and also have many others that coincide with the launch of new anime series.

They also seem to offer violin/flute/harp concerts every saturday evening. An additional charge of 300 yen is required to attend it, and as it may be quite popular, they recommend on taking a reservation. I have not yet attended one of these performances.

Their point card system offers one stamp for every 500 yen in purchases. After 20 stamps (at least 10000 yen), you get a 500 yen discount ticket. Not bad, but could have been a little more imaginative. Additionaly, they have a small goods store, with figures for sale, as well as tableware with the cafe logo imprinted on it.

There is one thing though I did not like about this cafe. The aprons worn by some of  the maids are quite dirty. It’s not a moe type of dirty (if there is even something like that), but more like a “this apron has been washed 10000 times” type of dirty. I find it quite noticeable and very unappealing. Maybe it is supposed to appeal to some type of otaku (definitely not me), but I think it is completely unnecessary to keep those aprons, and replacements should not be very expensive for them.

Apart from the aprons, I liked this place a lot. The is as far as I know, one of the most successful maid cafes in Akihabara, so please be sure to give it a visit.

Now, for our basic information:

• Name: Cure Maid Café
• Location: Akihabara, Tokyo
• Homepage: http://www.curemaid.jp/
• Address: 3-15-5 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo-to. Gee Store Akiba 6F.
• Opening hours: 11:00 to 20:00. Fridays, Saturdays and the day before Holidays, until 22:00. Sundays until 19:00. Last order 30 minutes before the store closes.
• Rules: No table charge. Maximum stay of two hours. Reservations and special requests are possible.

It was our first time in Akiba, so we had no idea how to look for maid cafes, much less what to expect. Was it going to be too ecchi for what we could handle? (Unlikely ^^) What we were sure is that it was going to be a new experience.

After the sun set, we started moving to the secondary streets and alleys in Akiba, if maid cafes actually existed, they would most likely not be right by the huge stores in Chuo street. However, after looking for a while, nothing seemed like it would be what we were looking for. It was getting a little late, so some talks about going back started to emerge.

Finally, we found a standing banner with maid drawings on some alley, it had some kind of menu, so that was very likely what we were looking for. The prices startled some of us, because paying 500 yen for a drink was a little bit excessive, but after discussing it for a short while, we decided to go into the shop and see it with our own eyes.

There were four of us, two boys and two girls. I don’t remember who entered first, but I do remember that we were not welcomed with the usual “Okaerinasaimase, goshujin-sama!”. This is a little bit of a problem when you go as a foreigner, since they don’t know what to speak in, and japanese are usually very shy when speaking English.

As we were shown to our table, I noticed that there were some three or four girls waiting on the tables, all of them with the same cute black uniforms. The place itself was quite ample, and unusually white. There were manga books you could freely get to read, and there was a small sofa where you could play famicon with the images projected onto the wall. This was separately charged, though.

After our drinks were served, and we kept on talking, I saw one of the maids serving something that seemed like popcorn to another client, in a huge bottle/container. Kinda like this:

Crude drawing aside, very moe indeed.

Some of the girls came to our table and chatted us up, and we left shortly after. I don’t remember many other details about this place, but I do remember that I went back to our hotel with a nosebleed >_< (true story).

I went back sometime in late 2008, but for some reason, the feeling was a little bit off. This time it felt more like just a regular cafe with maid uniforms. It must have been because it was a weekday or something like that.

This cafe, however, closed sometime around April, 2009. I even found a farewell party video on youtube.

Actually, this is the first time I do so, and I was not so comfortable with the idea, as food in maid cafes usually tends to be quite expensive (around 1000 yen, compared to 500 yen in the school cafeteria).

Nevertheless, for the sake of the blog (^_^;) I decided to spend a few more yen so I could give a review of another Maid Cafe. I had the Akiba Days guide with me, so I just decided to go to a random place I hadn’t been before.

The Maid Cafe I found myself in is called JAM Akihabara. Located in the B1 floor on one of the alleys, I have to say I had a little bit of a hard time locating it. The sign is quite small, and the place itself does little to stand out. This was clearly a place with a clientele different from those other large cafes, so it would definitely be interesting.

The place itself is a single rectangular room and can accommodate some 20 people, with the smokers’ section on one end, with tables with wall seats; the non-smokers’ section in the middle, with regular tables for 2, and the counter on the other end. One thing you will notice is how most tables in the non-smoking section are for two but only have one seat, pointing at the counter so you can view the maids. Of course, with the girls dressed in dark green maid outfits with mini skirts, who wouldn’t sit facing the counter >_<

I was met with a very pleasant surprise, as the menu is very reasonably priced, with lunch orders for around 600 yen (going as low as 500 yen). Add 100 yen and you also get a drink. You’d think that for this price you’d get a mediocre plate, but the order came with a very generous amount of food and very well presented. So far this is the Maid Cafe with the best food I’ve been to.

In addition to the very cute and revealing maid outfits the friend I went with could only describe as “oh yeah, I like it!”, decoration is pretty straightforward, and could easily pose for a regular restaurant, but it is all very well designed, as the green, brown and white colors the theme has can be found from the seats to the counter and to the maid outfits.

Service is relatively normal for a maid cafe. At least when I went there, I didn’t get my drink mixed by one of the girls, or any kind of role play involved. It is a restaurant with the girls dressed as maids.When I went there, there were about 5 girls (or Fairies, as their website calls) on duty, which is perfect. They are not talking loudly as in other cafes, but are idling instead. They do come from time to time to start some small talk. Overall, service-wise, this can easily appeal to those who are not into Maid Cafes but are curious about it, but may leave more hardcore otaku wanting some more.

They also have a point card system with one point for every 1000 yen in purchases, but since we split the bill, I couldn’t see how it works. However, I find 1000 yen for 1 point a little excesive, especially in a very well priced place as this.

Photography, as usual, is forbidden. Nevertheless, I couldn’t find a “Photo with maid” option in the menu, so it seems you can’t have photos regardless of whether you pay or not. Maybe with the point card?

I really liked the place, especially the food, which is very reasonably priced and of excellent quality. The girls are also very pretty and the uniforms suit them very well. The place may be a little bit low on service for a Maid Cafe, so I would recommend it for more mature or beginner audiences who may not be so much into Maid Cafes but want a not-so-intense experience. I do find it a little negative that they seem to have no events. Or at least they don’t show any in their webpage.

This is the basic information:

• Name: JAM Akihabara
• Location: Akihabara, Tokyo
• Homepage: http://www.jam-akiba.com/
• Address: 3-2-13 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo-to. First Basement Floor.
• Opening Hours: 12:00 to 23:00. Fridays, Saturdays and the day before Holidays, until 5:00 of the following day (with an additional 10% surcharge from 23:00 to 5:00). Last order for food is 1 hour before the store closes; 30 minutes before the store closes for drinks and cakes.
• Rules: No table charge. On busy times, a maximum time of 90 minutes is enforced.

Maid Cafe/Animation Studio Popopure is a relatively large, and quite popular maid cafe in Akihabara, just by the AsoBitCity shop (not the one on the main street, but the one after crossing the street).

I first learned about this place because several maids stand just outside the shop handing flyers. You can either go inside by yourself, or you can simply approach one of them and ask them to show you where the shop is. I had crossed that place several times when going to AsoBitCity, until one day I decided to actually go in with some friends.

This cafe is unique in the sense that it is not only a maid cafe, but also, as it is implied by its name, it is also an animation studio. This means that for the small price of 1500 yen, you get the unique experience of dubbing a 60 second animated feature, with your voice and those of some of the maids, and get the resulting video on a DVD.

I haven’t tried the video dubbing, but it seems like you do it right in front of everybody, because they have some microphones, a computer, and a projector screen in the middle of the room. While they’re not recording, they show a video of how the recording works, and it appears that they have a choice of about half a dozen of videos for you to try. One of those seems to be designed to be dubbed in English, so overseas patrons can also have this experience.

I don’t remember whether or not they had English menus, but I do remember that one of the girls was clearly American or European, who most likely speaks English fluently. So far, this is the first maid cafe I see with a foreign staff member. A wonderful thing indeed.

The cafe is quite spacious, with white and yellow colors standing out. Tables are for 2 and 4, but they also have a counter. In total, the whole place could possibly accommodate a total of some 20 people, which is a little bit large for a maid cafe.

As with many other maid cafes in Akihabara, the place itself is heavily decorated, but because of its size, it does not feel confined at all.

Service was excellent, and the girls were very active and cute, always trying to get smiles out of their customers, and they greet you with the usual “okaerinasaimase, goshujin-sama!”.

Also, as it is very popular in maid cafes, when they bring you your drinks, the maid gets you to say words like “let’s make it be very delicious!” with her, and by doing so, it does taste much better! ^^

The atmosphere is very casual and relaxed, but also quite lively. The girls are running around, and when they’re idle, they’re showing cute poses and dresses, and talking about how cute they are, so even if you go alone, you definitely won’t be bored. They are also very nice, and are more than willing to start a short conversation with you, but are by no means pushy.

Even though it is technically a maid cafe, not all of them had the same uniform, which adds to the variety; one of the girls was even dressed as a schoolgirl instead, acting more on the imouto (little sister) role. I found that very cute, especially as she said “bai bai!!!” (bye bye) to departing customers. Some others also have glasses, which is very cute as well.

There is no table charge. Soft drinks cost 600 yen, food costs 1200 yen and a dessert set (with a drink) also costs 1200 yen. This is pretty much the average for Akihabara maid cafes, but for the budget maid-cafe-lovers, there are cheaper choices.

Alcoholic beverages are also available, but the repertoire is quite limited. Because of this, I recommend you go with the soft drinks instead.

They also offer taking a picture of you with any member of the staff you wish, in a pose you wish. This costs 500 yen, and the picture is taken with their own instant camera and later given to you signed by the maid you took the picture with.

Popopure also has a point card system, in which you get a stamp for each 500 yen that you spend, with an additional stamp on rainy days. You can then trade these stamps for free drinks or even a free dubbing session, depending on the amount of stamps you have.

To be honest, I really liked this place, and it has become one of my favorites. Apart from the animation studio thing, Popopure is pretty much a very stereotypical maid cafe, the kind of which you see in anime and dramas. Standard cafes like this one are not as common as one would think, so if you come to Japan, and only have one chance to go to a maid cafe, I definitely recommend this one.

Finally, some basic data:

• Name: メイド喫茶・アニメーションスタジオぽぽぷれ (Maid Cafe/Animation Studio Popopure)
• Location: Akihabara, Tokyo.
• Homepage: http://popopure.com/maid/
• Address: 1-8-10 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo-to. Second Floor.
• Opening hours: 11:00 to 21:00, last order at 20:30.
• Rules: No table charge, you can stay 1 hour per order per person, up to a maximum of 2 hours.