A Maid Cafe Adventure - Good Smile Cafe

        I’ve always wanted to work at a cosplay café.  I know my husband gave me the same look when I told him. @_@  Then again I’m one of those people who loves Halloween and loved cosplaying back in my university days . . .sigh . . .  To have a job where you can dress up in all kinds of crazy costumes (and not have to read lines in front of a camera = scary~~), would be a dream job for me!  True, you meet the occasional weirdo, but then again I met some pretty strange people just working at a women’s clothing store (regular clothes, not costumes ^_^).

        So when I saw on the news that Taipei had its very own maid café I turned my adoring, pleading eyes towards my husband.  And when that didn’t work, I bargained and negotiated to make him go with me.  (Letting him pick the movie for our movie night for the next three weeks is a small price to pay!!)  He had to go with a buddy because he didn’t want to seem otaku (read- super geek) by himself and after dragging a somewhat suspecting (vs unsuspecting!) friend along, we were ready to go!

Otome in action!

The café – Good Smile Café

Location – This cafe is right next to Taipei Main Station Exit Z2.  It’s very easy to find if you know where Mitsukoshi (Shinguang Sanyue) is.  Facing Mistukoshi, the building to your left looks like an average office building, but on the fifth floor is none other than the maid café!

Atmosphere – This café’s current theme revolves around the anime/game Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, which I’ve never seen or played, and many of the character artworks and action figures there all come from that series.  Inside the café was much larger than I’d first thought, very spacious with anime posters (of Madoka Magica) hanging from the ceiling.  The entrance was a clear wall filled with shelves of action figures from some of the more popular anime and games in Taiwan.  I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I realized the focus of the café was on an anime I hadn’t seen before, but still everything was very cute and there were lots of fun things to see.

Isn't that the cutest curry ever?? >.<

The food – I went in expecting expensive food and not very high quality, but I was pleasantly surprised!  Although, the food was expensive (in Taiwan at least, average for the US) it all tasted very good.  There were some anime-themed meals as well as drinks, and my husband was thrilled to be able to eat curry (because I’m allergic we don’t eat it often) and even better the curry was sooo cute! *^_^*  It seemed a shame to eat it, but we were hungry and just took lots of pictures.  I had a delicious meal of soup (with a smiling face ^m^) and bread.  The drinks came in anime-inspired colors and flavors and were also pretty tasty.

The service – The maids were super cute!!  The costumes were pretty simple though and I had somewhat expected elaborate cosplay (though I’ve found another maid café in Taipei that I’m dying to try that is even more otaku-centered . . . more on that later).  But the girls were very professional and sweet, even allowing me to take a picture with them!  (Although there was no getting called ‘master’ and ‘mistress’ much to our friend’s disappointment!  Hee hee!)

Very spacious and chic, ne?

After our meal, we walked around the café, whose guests had increased from when we first walked in, and looked at the various artworks, signed the guestbook (with our sad little drawing), and looked at the small gift-shop.  All in all, we had a wonderful time (even my husband!!) and now I am planning our next maid café adventure!

Next week (I know I'm a once a week blogger~ too busy >.<) I’m planning to either talk about Y Mall at Taipei Main Station, which is a great place to buy anime, games, and manga OR a review of the anime Brave 10, which I’ve started watching recently.  Any thoughts, comments or suggestions?  Any comments on the maid café adventure?  Do you like cosplay?  And if you do, who have/ would you cosplay(ed)?  (Me~  I would totally cosplay Road from D Gray Man or Isanami from Brave 10)  See you next time!  Ja ne~