Finally… ojousama‘s account of her experience at the butler cafe: Atelier Royale… Thanks for the coverage! :D
Was it worth the long queue and waiting time?
Posts index:
1) Event, booths and goods
2) Cosplay pics, artists zone
3) Atelier Royale Butler Cafe ——- You are here
My friend and I went to the event in the afternoon. We joined the queue at the butler cafe at about 4~5pm. The queue was quite long and snaked all the way from the entrance in the photo to the back of the cafe. The queue obscured the logo too and we almost missed it. It was located in the middle between a mini stage and MMK Maid Cafe.
While we waited, the person queuing in front passed the menu down the line to us. So we took a look. The design was classy but the price was… well… as expected. Steep. And the selection… I flipped over the menu and saw a white blank page. So that was all they’re offering: 1 main course and 2 desserts that’s all. But hey. We’re paying for the princess treatment by gentlemanly and handsome butlers, right?
Close up of the menu. My friend and I wanted to try the desserts. They looked delicious. As for the main course… for an event like this, it was best to lower our expectations.
And they also provided some side orders. Drinks and photo taking with your favourite butler! Just S$5 each and additional butler for only S$2 each!
I wasn’t interested in any particular butler to be honest. I just wanted to try out cafe for the fun of it.
After queuing for more than one hour, there were 2 more couples in front of us before it was our turn. They had a window where the staff could peek out and monitor the queue and for us to sneak a peak into what we could expect inside. I wasn’t too impressed by the interior… but we caught glimpses of the butlers and we realised that they were kinda cute in person. :D +++ points to that.
Posters advertising exclusive merchandise of the butlers and the rules and regulations.
Merchandise details
Sneak snapshots of the activity inside the cafe.
Photos or videos not allowed while inside. Couldn’t choose butlers either, etc.
Only 45 minutes each.
Since we couldn’t video from the inside, I decided to do it from the outside!
Video taken while we waited (edited by ponytale).
By the time it was our turn, all the desserts had run out :( but we went for it anyway and hoped that the pasta didn’t taste too bad. Each patron must order one set meal to enter the cafe. Whatever. There was no turning back now!
I took a quick glance at the place… maximum capacity was less than 40 people? We were asked if we wanted to take photo with our butler. Well, why not? So it was added to the bill and we were asked to pay up first. Then the butler assigned to us, Hiroshi greeted us in… a mix of Japanese and English. When I heard him speak, I thought he didn’t sound Japanese *raise one eyebrow*
Sorry to say I can’t show any more photos from here onwards because no photography was allowed. Anyway, Hiroshi showed us to our table, pulled out our chairs for us, etc and explained that he will serve us our food shortly and mentioned that we could use the bell and call for them when we needed something. He definitely looked way cuter than his butler photos.
While my friend and I waited… we contemplated if we should ring the bell for every little thing we wanted hahaha… for the fun of getting our butler’s attention and make full use of the limited 45 mins to see them up close. It was very silly just to think about what excuses we should come up with each time we rang the bell :D
Food was served very quickly. The pasta looked and tasted better than I expected. It was warm! I read horror stories about the maid cafe serving cold pasta last year. Anyway, the tea was nice too. We would have loved to try the desserts.
One thing that bothered me was that our butler didn’t sound like a Japanese guy at all. In the end we rang the bell and summoned Hiroshi to us :D for water and to check how much time we had left.
When he came back with our requests, I finally asked about his nationality and he said he was a local! Eh???? I thought they were butlers flown in from Japan! What an idiot I was. I should have known. The packaging and presentation (of their website and photo shoot) were done pretty well in my opinion but he seemed shy and inexperienced. I guess I couldn’t contain my disappointment and the poor guy kept apologising to us for it even though it was not his fault. :P So endearing.
While we ate, we allowed our eyes to wander around the small area and check out the other eye candy butlers…
Later on, Hiroshi was occupied with another table. Ringing our bell summoned Haru to our table :D Another butler who also looked cuter in person than in the photos. We had a nice chat with him too. They were very sweet and charming indeed. And I began to understand the appeal of being served by a charming and handsome butler/waiter. Also appreciated the lack of language barrier too since we could converse with one another.
Finally photo taking! Haru asked if we were taking photos with a butler and Hiroshi chipped in and said… you could have more butlers for S$2 each only! Of course we could. When he asked who we wanted, we said… both of you of course :D
We could choose a 4 person group photo OR each ojousama with 2 butlers. It was a no brainer. The latter of course!
Thanks to the digital camera, you can choose to retake your photo if it didn’t turn out right and request different types of poses from your ever obliging butlers. They didn’t give us the digital file, so I had to shoot my printed photo.
The result (edited by ponytale)
We definitely enjoyed our butlers’ company and their personalities. :D Not exactly the princess treatment I expected… I’ve not been to any butler cafes before so I couldn’t compare but our butlers did their best and gave us lots of attention. Thanks for the hardwork guys!
But the ambiance was a negative thanks to the event noise surrounding the cafe but this was not the butlers’ fault. They did their best with what they had. Overall, it was fun. My friend and I had a great time. Once again otsukaresama deshita!
If there was an official butler cafe here, I’ll definitely go for it. And if the food was good, then it’ll probably work out well in the long run too.
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ojousama
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Lol~ I find these boys cute too! Please take me along next time :3 Their Nyaa-nyaa poses are such <3 Thanks for such a detailed coverage and pics XD
More information about: Atelier Royale (and facebook page), the first butler cafe in South East Asia.
Event: Anime Festival Asia 2010
Venue: Singapore Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Halls 401 and 402
Date: 13th – 14th November 2010
Time: 10.00 am to 9.00 pm
Cosplay competition, butler cafe, maid cafe, marketplace (Bandai, Nitro+, Cospa, Goodsmile… ), live performances, manga and anime… Daily tickets are priced from $8 and up.
Check out the official website for more information.
Posts index:
1) Event, booths and goods
2) Cosplay pics, artists zone
3) Atelier Royale Butler Cafe ——- You are here
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if we’re in Japan, we don’t go once, we try to go THE WHOLE DAY! XD
@Mizuki: Then we have to prepare lots of money XD there’s a time limit per session! AND we have to book in advance lol~
one reason why i didn’t go to the butler cafe was because all of them are singaporeans, and they didn’t have a proficiency in japanese language.
you can find them on facebook, they update their fanpage with individual photos if your interested :)
@Mizuki: Ah~ I’ve seen those! Reviews were pretty ok tho. But if we even visit Japan, we must try it at least once XD
Heeeehhh.. I see..
Well, where I’m working in now has a lot of guy workers. There’s only about, 5 or 6 girls working there including me.. in McD’s to be exact xD Most of them are all in their twenties or under, 2 really cute twins and the counter boys are really nice.
lol, bishie McD’s restaurant.
@hirochan: :D eye candy definitely makes the work place nicer! Bishie McD’s! lol~ I would love that too!
Hmm I too expected the guys to be from Japan actually. Lol.
Though, I wish more local restaurants/cafe’s actually have polite and ‘customers are the boss’ priority sort of waiters! I wish I’d get a chance to join an event like this soon.
It’s good that they serve the food warm. I mean, seriously, a maid cafe’ serving cold food? That just turns off the moe-ness. :\
@hirochan: Their official photos look very authentic huh. If I attended the event, I would have expected them to be Japanese butlers too since the organisers flew so many artists, cosplayers and speakers in specially for the event.
I think it’s not that rare to find attentive and polite waiters at good restaurants but to have a restaurant that is full of good-looking waiters who are also attentive to your needs… wow… that’s such a treat. I think the Japanese are genius for coming up with such a theme. Wanna try it too X3
However, personally I think the food has to be good. Otherwise I don’t think I’ll go back to the restaurant even if I like the boys. I mean… the prices aren’t cheap from what we’ve seen and I cannot get over it if I pay top dollars for blar tasting food. This is probably the major difference between butler cafe and maid cafe. I’ve read that some butler cafes in Japan closed down because the food was just not up to standard to warrant paying the extra prices but the maid cafes are still flourishing lol lol. Girls or… ojousamas are indeed princesses and harder to please XD