This article is based on a visit made on Monday, 14 November 2016.
In the 2000s, the first "maid cafes" sprung up in
Akihabara. These are restaurants where light meals are served by waitresses in French-maid-style uniforms, who greet customers with phrases like "welcome home, master" and other such respectful language, and chat with and even play small games with them in between delivering their food. In recent years, not only has this trend expanded to other cities in Japan, but the concept has evolved into other themes.
After a long afternoon at
Nakano Broadway and the
Ghibli Museum, I returned to Akihabara to have dinner at Little TGV (鉄道居酒屋LittleTGV,
Tetsudō Izakaya LittleTGV), a "railway tavern". The theme is based on a fictional line called the "New Akiba Electric Railway (NAER)", the waitress uniforms are "moe"-fied versions of train conductor attire, and the walls are decked out with pictures of trains, line maps, schedules, number plates, and other train-related artifacts. Even the name of the restaurant is a railway reference, to
the TGV high-speed network in France.
Little TGV sets itself apart from other maid cafes not only from its decor, but from its menu. As per its name, it is an izakaya, a type of Japanese pub. The food menu is not terribly long, but has an even balance of fried and grilled dishes, salads, and more, most of it common Japanese fare. Their drink menu includes a wide list of cocktails, both alcoholic and not, named after trains and train lines. For example, a Screwdriver (vodka and orange juice) is here called a "Sobu-sen", after the
Sobu Main Line. Expect to pay between ¥400 to ¥800 per item. There is an extra cover charge of ¥500 added to your bill, but even with that, this place is not terribly expensive.
Little TGV is still a maid cafe at heart. Some special menu items come with a little performance; for example, if you order the "Gata-Goto Fries", your waitress puts the fries in a paper bag with your choice of seasoning, then shakes up the bag while the both of you chant "gata-goto", the Japanese sound effect for a train chugging along. As can be seen above, she even made an origami papercraft thing (it looks kind of like a plane, counter-intuitively...) for me to rest my chopsticks on! The ticket near the top of this picture is a receipt for the cover charge I mentioned earlier.
It wouldn't be a railway-themed establishment without a model train display set up! There were, of course, a few trains running laps around it, such as the green train (from the Yamanote line?) barely visible on the right side. Still others were parked below the tracks, including a few Shinkansen models and a "Doctor Yellow" maintenance train (should be easy to guess which one).
If trains aren't your thing, or even if they are, there are other kinds of concept restaurants out there in Akihabara. For example, there's
"Little BSD", a fantasy-demon-themed cosplay pub,
"Little PSX", a maid cafe where you can play darts with the maids, and
"Akiba CIA", a spy-themed bar. Come to think of it, all those three examples, plus Little TGV, are affiliates run by the same company. But there are sure to be more of these concept restaurants all over Japan, so keep on searching!
Hours: Open from 6:00 PM to 11:00PM on Tuesdays to Fridays, from 4:00 PM on Saturdays, and from 12:00 PM on Sundays. Closed on Mondays.
Access: The closest station is Suehirocho (Tokyo Metro Ginza
(G) line), followed by Akihabara (JR Yamanote
(JY), Keihin-Tohoku
(JK), Chuo-Sobu
(JB), Tokyo Metro Hibiya
(H), and Tsukuba Express
(TX) lines).
Directions: From Suehirocho Station (exit 3), walk down two blocks and turn right, at the Excelsior Caffe. Walk down two more blocks and turn left, at the Cafe Euro. The restaurant entrance will be on the left.
From Akihabara Station (Electric Town exit), turn right out of the ticket gates, then left. Cross Chuo-dori and turn right. Walk down five blocks (300 m / 1,000 ft.) and turn left, at the Excelsior Caffe. Walk down two more blocks and turn left, at the Cafe Euro. The restaurant entrance will be on the left.
Address: Isamiya #3 Building 4F, 3-10-5 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tōkyō-to 〒101-0021
Website:
(Japanese)
