Maid cafe and Butler cafe

Cosplay restaurants (コスプレ系飲食店 Kosupure-kei inshokuten^?), are theme restaurants and pubs that originated in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan around the year 1999.^{[citation needed]}  The staff treat the customers as masters and mistresses in a private home rather than merely as café customers.

Maid cafés (メイドカフェ Meido kafe) are a subcategory of cosplay restaurants found predominantly in Japan. In these cafés, waitresses dressed in maid costumes act as servants, and treat customers as masters (and mistresses) in a private home, rather than as café patrons. The first permanent^[1] maid café, Cure Maid Café, was established in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan in March 2001,^[2] but maid cafés are becoming increasingly popular.

In a standard maid cafe the female employees dress up as french maids (occasionally, the maids may wear rabbit or cat ears for extra cute appeal) and refer to the customers as either Master (ご主人様 goshujinsama^?) or Mistress (お嬢様 ojōsama^?). Upon entering one of such stores, the customer is greeted with the customary "Welcome home, Master" (お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様！ Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama^?), offered a wipe towel and shown a food/drink menu.

While most cosplay restaurants and maid cafes cater mostly to men, there is also a type for women called the butler café (執事喫茶 shitsuji kissa^?).