Images used in this review and 100+ more can viewed in 2 albums the Project 760 Productions Official Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-760-Productions-Official-Fan-Page/121954761160978
At 10:30am, a few attendees arrived early and began waiting by the doors to Senzala Restaurant. By 11:00am, a respectable line had formed while staffers continued to set up for the event. Around 11:20am, the doors opened and attendees were greeted by the maids of Fanimaid Cafe. After being greeted, attendees were processed through the registration and food lines before being seated at one of the many tables in the main dining section. The registration and food lines seemed to last until the dining area was completely filled.
When seating was finished, drink orders were taken and snacks were distributed. The Lunch session snacks weren't distributed to some tables due to some miscommunication. This appeared to be resolved for the Dinner session.
For the Lunch session, attendees were given the choices of beef, pork, and vegetarian dishes for $13, choice of beverage included. The same menu was offered for the Dinner session at a slightly higher price of $15.
After attendees placed their drink orders, the Silent Auction started and video messages from special guests were presented.
During the Lunch session, an audio problem made it difficult to hear the audio from the videos. Fortunately, this was corrected for the Dinner session and the videos can be seen online at: http://www.youtube.com/user/NekonekoLacus
Following the video messages, meal orders were delivered and a slide show was presented, giving attendees a chance to enjoy their meals.
The pork dish was quite good, but a little expensive to eat everyday. The dish consisted of seasoned pork, greens, rind-less orange pieces, rice, beans and a fried banana.
After attendees were finished eating, the maids brought out some games to play with attendees such as Hungry Hungry Hippos and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. Each table had time to play a few games.
Next, the maids continued to the entertainment portion of the event which featured several song and/or dance performances, including My Song from THE IDOLM@STER, Panda Neko Taisou from Hanamaru Kindergarten, Meiya Kadenrou from Katanagatari, and a dance performance to KARA's Mister.
At the start of the Lunch session performances, there were some technical difficulties. Fortunately, they fixed promptly.
Following the performances, a variant of jan-ken-pon/rock-paper-scissors involving a toy hammer (for attacking) and a dish (for blocking) was introduced by Yomi. This portion of the event was more amusing than expected as people proceeded to play jan-ken-pon immediately followed by attacking or blocking. In extreme cases, the hammer could be seen flying across the stage!
After the game session, the Lunch session concluded with the winners of the Silent Auction being announced and each winner got their picture taken with all of the available maids.
Following the conclusion of the Lunch session, there was a short lunch break to allow the maids to rest, eat, and prepare for the Dinner session.
During the lunch break, it was discovered that the Dinner session conflicted with another event at the same restaurant, a CD release party by Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Orchestra. At this point, the maid cafe moved out of the Dining area and into the bar section as the Cartoon Jazz Orchestra proceeded to set up. While the Cartoon Jazz event proceeded to seat their own attendees and perform classic cartoon music with jazz instruments.
The maid cafe took the conflict of events in stride by hosting the first part of the Dinner session in the bar area.
The songs performed by the Cartoon Jazz Orchestra was very well done and included classic cartoon music such as themes from Looney Tunes and Pink Panther. It was very cute when some of the maids danced to music performed by the Cartoon Jazz Orchestra.
Dinner session registration and food orders were taken as peanuts were liberally served. Around this time, a few attendees partook in a few maid caf� games of the ever-exciting Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots.
Due to time restraints, the Silent Auction was held as a Live Auction. This felt more dynamic and Mei-chan did an excellent job as an auctioneer.
After the Cartoon Jazz Orchestra's event cleared out, the maid cafe moved everyone back to the main dining area where meals were served and the rest of the Dinner session played out smoothly thanks to fixes made from the previous session.
Apparently one of Dinner dishes had run out and a secret chicken dish was unlocked. This is something I'll definitely have to try next time I'm at Senzala.
After each session, attendees were given a special card by Yukie Dong.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate the Lunch session as a 5 and the Dinner session as a 7.
The "Pray for Japan" Maid Cafe Charity Event was a fun event to raise donation funds for earthquake/tsunami disaster relief. While there were some problems, it ended up being a highlight to see the event evolve though the maid cafe staff adapting quickly to fix and improve things over the course of the day. Kudos to the maid caf� for making sure there was enough content for this to be a standalone event.
The food at Senzala, while a little on the expensive side was worth it for a complete restaurant meal.
I look forward to seeing future Fanimaid Cafe events improve from this experience.
-Michael Tang
mtangATconventionlife.com (fix the @)
Thanks to Yukie Dong, Pray for Japan, Project 760 and Autolooper for the use of these images.
The images used in this article are copyright 2011 Project 770|Autolooper.
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