Back in October 2013 I attended the Ai My Maid Froyo Party – A Wild Maid Appears at Tutti Frutti, sadly this venue has now closed, so the Ai My Maid Miko Miko Kyun event was relocated to Boba Jam, Charring Cross Road, which serves Bubble Tea and Japanese delicacies.

The upstairs of Boba Jam was transformed with pink and red decor where attendees entering the venue were greeted by Butler Kenji and asked to select a lucky fortune slip for the chance to win a special prize! Luck was on on my side and I won a chekki (decorated polaroid photo), which I later had with the adorable Maid Mayumi. Escorted to our table by Maid Emi; the seating reminded me of Wagamamas, you were potentially seated next to an unfamilar otaku, and not just your friends. This was a nice opportunity to meet new people and meant you didn’t have to sit by yourself if you came alone. Additionally, each seat was given an envelope to draw a picture for the maids to hung up on the walls in Boba Jam.

The process was to go downstairs, order and pay for your food and drink, then your serving maid or butler would bring it up to you when it was ready.

For those unfamiliar with bubble tea, also known as pearl milk tea or boba tea, is a Taiwanese beverage mixed with milk or fruit and can be served hot or cold. Often large chewy tapioca balls are added which is where the allegory of bubbles/pearls comes from. There are hundreds of different variations and fillings to choose from – not just tapioca! At this event I enjoyed a Lychee fruit tea with yogurt popping balls.

As well as bubble tea, Boba Jam specialises in deserts such as ice cream and waffles often adding a unique twist or combining unusual flavours. For example, my friend had a mango sorbet and chocolate ice cream sundae!

Activties that took place during the event included challenging the maids at console games such as Tekken and classic board games such as Pop Up Pirate and Guess Who, competitors who beat the maids ten times won a special prize.

Ai My Maid are not only gaming enthuisiasts, they each have a different skill/talent to offer from singing, dancing and nail art (which seemed awfully popular with the boys!) these services were available to order from 50p upwards.

As mentioned in my previous article, the strength of Ai My Maid is their friendly, interactive and down to earth nature. From observation I find they are very attentive to those who attend alone and do not know anyone. Despite coming as a group we were still regularly checked on by Ai My Maid to see if we needed anything and that we were having a good time.

In comparison to the Ai My Maid Froyo Party, this event was much busier than the last, attendees were even choosing to stay and pay for additional time slots, and with the bubble tea and Japanese food on offer it felt like an authentic Japanese maid café experience. I was also pleased to see that there was a much more equal ratio of female to male attendees at this event! Maid cafes are a fun and friendly event which can be enjoyed by all so this was nice to see. Good job Ai My Maid, hope to see you soon!

Photos from the event here

To find out more about Ai My Maid and maid cafes read my interview with them here.