I caught up with Head Maid Mao, from Maids of England to discuss maid cafés and the upcoming MOE Love concert!

Those who have never been to a maid café, what can they expect at one of your events?

It’s very difficult to put the feeling of ‘moe’ into words for Western audiences, but we definitely try! I think it’s best described as a ‘cute paradise’ where people can truly be themselves. We always say that you get the best experience from our café if you truly participate and that’s certainly true for a lot of our customers!

At our events you are greeted at the door by a doorman, usually Butler Jin or Maid Mao, who will tell you the rules of the café and also assign you a maid for your visit home. Our cast list changes depending on the event and we usually put up a list of the serving cast on the event page. Upon entering the café, you will be welcomed home by the maids who will talk to you about various things on the menu. Our menu changes depending on the event and venue, but almost all items come with special games or sauce drawings that are individualised for the customer by their maid. There is a selection of savouries and cakes on the menu, so there is something for all palates!

Maids will interact with customers and play games with them as well as perform ‘lives’ (dances and/or singing). There is also a ‘chekki’ service, which are decorated polaroids. These are taken with maids and customers often enjoy collecting ones with their favourite maids, especially when maids have costume changes.

Sometimes there are special limited edition items also, such as Christmas Cards or special signed pictures of certain maids. If it’s your birthday, you get a special service at the cafe and can get special privileges such as harem (group) chekkis. We also sometimes sell VIP tickets or special sets that come with collectibles or chekkis.

At the end of the slot, or when the customer decides to leave, the maids will wish you farewell and ask you to visit them again soon.

How similar are the UK events to the cafes in Japan?

Maids of England offers a very authentic experience, bringing many of the Japanese elements and incorporating them into our cafe. We still cater to more western tastes however, and do some things that Japanese cafes do not. One example of this is that Maids of England have butlers serving alongside maids, whereas in Japan, these would be separate cafes. We do incorporate almost everything that Japanese cafes have on offer however, including spells to make food tasty, shakey-shakey service and chekkis.

What are the rules of attendees of maid café?

Our rules are very simple and don’t impediment on the customer’s fun. Maids are not allowed to talk about their personal lives. Whilst in the café, you are their ‘goshujinsama’ or ‘ojousama’ (Master or Mistress) and they will treat you only as such. Asking for phone numbers or personal contact details is prohibited. There are also strict rules on photography. We allow photos of food, but pictures of maids are not allowed during events. We don’t want any pictures leaking of Lala-chan’s petticoats! Our final rule is that we don’t allow physical contact such as asking for hugs or to hold hands!

What are the maids like?

We have a wide variety of personalities within our cafe. If you wish to find out more about our cast, please go to our Facebook Fanpage ‘Maids of England’ in order to read individual bios.

Maids of England are having their first MOE Love Concert on 20^th April, could you tell me a bit about this?

Our concert is taking place at The Miller Pub in Southwark and it starts at 7:30pm. The concert will include live singing and dancing, as well as a wotagei (Japanese fan chant) tutorial. Almost all of the Maids of England cast will be performing there, as well as some of our sister cafe Tea Prince and DotDot3 who are a special dance unit. Performances include traditional maid songs such as ‘Hapi Hapi Morningu’ and ‘Mune Mune Kyun’ as well as solo performances and subgroup performances. You can see the maids talking about what they are each individually going to perform on our facebook page where each maid has uploaded a short video. Afterwards there will be a WOTA clubnight that will perform Jpop and other doujin music. Tickets are £4 in advance or £5 on the door. VIP tickets are also available, with special meet and greet sessions with the maids and chekkis for our next event included in the cost.

How long have Maids of England been performing for?

Maids of England have regular performance slots at cons. All our dances are classed as ‘doujin’ (fan made) dances and each maid learns a variety to perform. As such we perform a lot of Nico Nico dances to popular vocaloid and maid songs. DotDot3 perform a larger variety of songs, including Jpop and Kpop numbers. All maids attend special Maids of England dance classes when they join and are taught a selection of dances through that.

Big thanks Maid Mao for you time and I can’t wait for your Love Concert!

Don’t miss out on the MOE Love Concert 20^th April buy tickets here http://moefirstlove.eventbrite.com/

Keep up to date with all things Maid of England via their Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/maidsofengland?fref=ts

Check out another of my posts with other Maids of England and butlers from Tea Prince on why they became maids/butlers and much more coming soon!