Maid cafés (メイドカフェ) is a popular and important element of the Japanese popular culture. In these cafés, waitresses dressed in maid costumes act as servants, and treat customers as masters or mistresses in a private home, rather than as normal café patrons.

While maid cafés originated in Japan, they have expanded overseas and have appeared in Singapore as well. One of the most well-known is the Moe Moe Kyun ♥ Maid Café (MMK), a popular feature at the annual Anime Festival Asia (AFA).

While I covered the MMK café as a blogger during past AFAs, I would usually be in a rush to cover other events, so this was my first actual experience of visiting a maid café.

Singaporeans tend to complain about the poor standards of our service industry but you would be pleasantly surprised by the warm, cozy feeling offered by the maid café. Once you step in, the maids will greet customers with "Welcome home, Master (Mistress)" (お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様！ Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama) before offering the menu.

The colours around the café were subtle, but IXUS captured the hues impeccably.

Maid cafés were created for the male otaku, fans of anime, manga and video games. Today, the maid café phenomenon attracts more than just male otaku, but also couples and women, simply for the fun and unique experience. There is never a dull moment in the maid café and you can see the waitresses approaching their customers to engage in interesting games and conversation, while waiting for the food to be served – one of the most interesting experiences of the maid café.

First the waitress laid out the dishes and utensils carefully on the table. Then, to my surprise, she took up her ketchup bottle and asked me what I wanted to draw on my “Full Moe Yaki”. Originally I thought the drawing would be done in the kitchen but instead the waitress drew a cute kitten face right in front of me. Thanks to the movie function of the Canon IXUS 220 HS, I was able to capture the entire process down. I just have to highlight that my IXUS camera records the movie in HD!! How cool is that?

The auto focus function of the movie mode was really fast and I didn’t have any difficulties when I zoomed in on dish.

Hope can you bear to eat such a kawaii thing!! I just love the fact that she drew those tiny hearts <3 <3 <3 around the plate XD

Tried to take a shot of my neko (cat) omelette using the “Toy Camera” effect and it produced a very nostalgic look. Meanwhile the “Super Vivid” mode just makes you feel like all the colors of the neko omelette is jumping out at you. If I had to use my Canon IXUS 20 HS to shoot a series of food gourmet shots, I’d definitely choose the super vivid mode! (And of course, you can use the macro mode together with the super vivid mode as well to zoom in on the finer details).

And before I managed to tuck-in to my delicious looking neko omelette, the meidos were worried that my food had gotten cold as I was too engrossed in my photo taking, so they gathered together to help me “power up” my food and make it even more tasty. It was an unforgettable experience and I nearly couldn’t hold my camera steady to record the video because the waitresses were just too cute! Of course, the image stabilization did help to steady my video.

And at the end of the meal, the kind waitresses would still guide you to the exit and bid your farewell fondly while asking you to return soon. If all our restaurants and dining outlets were to adopt such excellent service, I’m sure everyone would be happy to dine out more often just to experience the warm friendly smiles of the waitresses.

The Moe Moe Kyun Maid Café is a sexy experience, just like IXUS. Thank you Canon for this unforgettable encounter with the Maid Café!