Maid Cafes are a big part of otaku culture (Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games) in Japan. Apparently, Maid Cafes are pretty popular right now, specifically in the Akihabara area of Tokyo. Someone suggested we check one out while in Akihabara and I was intrigued so we decided to go.
As soon as you step out from the train station, you see girls dressed in French maid costumes trying to get you to go to their Maid Cafe.
We chose this Maid Cafe for no particular reason. As soon as you walk inside, the maids come up to you and say stuff like, “Welcome home Master! You must’ve had a long day.”
The menu is very simple and standard. I went with a shrimp rice pilaf and Boyfriend got a dry curry. All entrees were 1200 yen (!!) and all soft drinks were 600 yen.
Pictures aren’t allowed inside the restaurant but we snuck a few. You can PAY to take a picture with a maid and/or have a video made of a conversation you have with them.
I wouldn’t go back to a Maid Cafe although it was interesting to see. I thought the clientele would be young, lonely, dorky males but there were a lot of females dining there as well. The married couple sitting next to us even asked for a frequent diner’s card so they can collect points! I’m glad we saw what a Maid Cafe is like since it’s definitely something unique to the Japanese culture.
After we ate, while walking around, we saw these cars about a block away. Otaku culture at it’s finest!
This entry was posted
on May 3, 2009 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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Tags: Akihabara, dry curry, Japan, lunch, Maid Cafe, otaku culture, rice pilaf, Tokyo
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May 3, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I haven’t had dry curry in a really long while and forgot that it even existed. The only other time I’ve had dry curry was back in Hawaii at Shokudo (a great place to go eat Japanese food family style). Their version was served in a hot stone bowl so the rice got a little crunchy at the bottom. This version was pretty good too (though I think I like just about any food that has curry flavor). The maid cafe was interesting. There was a group of tourists on the other table next to us and when they brought out an omelet for their table, the maid wrote on it in ketchup. It was a bit pricey though so it was cool experiencing it once, but I’m not sure I’d be excited to go back.
May 6, 2009 at 7:40 am
Dry curry? How does that work? The pictures of the car kinda reminds me of a Toko-Doki bag!