Maid Cafes In Taiwan

Standees outside a certain meido kissa!

Taiwan is an interesting place, mainly due to its abundance of Japanese culture. For example, walking the streets of Ximending is liken to walking on the streets of Nanba Osaka. Due to the country's close proximity to Japan (approximately 2 hours flight from Tokyo), Taiwan has good access to Japanese produce and merchandise. Furthermore loads of prominent Japanese stars have set foot here. Top acts, especially idols, would usually include Taiwan as one of their stops whenever they do a 'World Tour'. The availability of Japanese themed shops brimming full of Japanese themed stuff can be seen around. Most notably Maid Cafes!


Moe Hime Cafe (Formerly Moe Point)

In Ximending alone, theres 2 meido cafes that I know of. Upon recommendation, I visit Moe Hime Cafe.

No Photos of Exterior of Cafe sadly

From what I heard this cafe was previously called Moe Point. Their uniform is similar to @Home cafe in Japan. It was full house that day so our expectations were quite high.

Moe Hime cake with love!

Meido who greeted was surprised we dont have a reservation, thus tried to make room inside. Since there's an event the next day, loads of Japanese were in the cafe. They ushered us to our seats and gave us a flimsy looking menu. Its foreshadowing what to expect later on *gulp*


Meido served us and I am surprised that there's no power-up! A word of advice when visiting these cafes, they will usually give foreigners, and to some extent non-Japanese speakers a different menu. Usually the contents will be the more expensive meals and lack of choices. Feel free to scout around your neighbouring table and ask for something which catches your eyes. Reviews has been favourable for this cafe, but I dont feel the charm. I guess its the timing as I did spy a livehouse area. Only redeeming point is that cafe adopt an interesting method in getting a meido cheki.

Food wise, its serving is small. Furthermore we dont have much of a choice because the menu shows limited foodstuffs. Even the tables around us, none we can spy is hearty enough for us.

Some mocktail from Moe Hime

Obligatory cheki with meido

Verdict:★★★☆☆
https://www.facebook.com/moe2point/


Maiden Diner

More cafes can be found just one train station apart. Drop off at Beimen station and you will enter the Taipei underground mall. Its one of the largest mall in the world. Loads of Japanese themed items especially UFO catchers littered all around the area

Photo courtesy from tripadvisor. Mainly because I didnt took photos much.

An interesting sight greets you as meido cafes (and butler cafe too!) are actually side by side. We tried Maiden Diner on Day 2.

Here we are at Maiden Diner!

Its a small and cosy place. Apparently both this and the neighbouring Maiden School are sister cafes. Since the meido infront of this cafe greeted us first, we repay back her effort by entering. Again, cafe was almost full house!

Pasta and their blue soda set 

Its a small and cosy cafe. Meidos presented us with coasters to put our drinks and the menu was very filling, not to mention universal since its a standard menu given to everyone.

Again, we were surprised that theres no power up! OMG, we were so used to it that all charms of a meido cafe were lost when none was uttered. They gave us some special coasters and I am actually cool with ther service rendered. For chekis, we have to go outside since theres no space inside cafe.

Verdict:★★★☆☆
https://www.facebook.com/MaidenDiner/

Maiden School

Photo from Wikicommons

Across the mall is Maiden School. This cafe we visited on the last day of our trip. As its name suggests, its theme is designed after a classroom. Its premise is you are being served by students of a magical school.

The food serving was decent and filling especially their sundae. In fact they werent stingy with the portions.

And finally! I have powerup done by the meidos! However we felt almost cheated not having a cheki with the meidos, a standard practice for most meido cafes. Even after asking and showing an sample cheki photo, meido gives an impression chekis were not available. However, only upon my friend speaking Japanese that they understood our intent and finally relented. We were adamant, mainly because someone visited cafe before and told us cafe do provide chekis.

Verdict: ★★★★☆ (Because of power up)

Conclusion

Theres another called Index Cafe which is located in Ximending too (https://www.facebook.com/index.acg/) But sadly we dont have the time to visit it. However the abundance of these cafes is kinda a draw for me to visit Taiwan again. Furthermore, this is just Taipei, I was told that theres more especially in Kaohshiung. Overall, albeit theres no powerup, I quite happy having such themed cafes around.

One thing I've noticed is the lack of point cards. Or perhaps, they see us as gaijins and don't give us one. Point cards are a draw in ensuring customer loyalty, where each subsequent visit can get stamps and exchange them for various rewards. Nevertheless, its quite an experience enjoying a meido kissa apart from Japan and Thailand.