Royal /T Cafe

8910 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA

(310) 559-6300
http://www.royal-t.org/

I was fascinated when my friends who came back from a vacation to Japan told me things about maid cafes. Basically they are cafes with waitresses dressed up as maids and they feed you food and mix your tea and add cream to your coffee until you say stop. They treat you as their master or boss. It sounded degrading but fun at the same time.

So one of my friends to whom I went to a Southern California trip with found a cafe that is similar to maid cafe. The cafe is called Royal /T Cafe. Get it? Royalty! Anyhow when we got there, there was a long line outside the cafe. We immediately thought they were lining up to eat, but no, they were lining up for a Hello Kitty exhibit and store that is taking place at the cafe gallery. We went straight into the dinning area, but there was a wait also. But it was okay because we were just looking at the exhibit while we waited. It took an hour until we were seated.

Royal /T Cafe was having their special Hello Kitty menu to go with the exhibit that period of time, so we just ordered from it along with their famous royal milk tea.

Royal Milk Tea - Black tea brewed with rose and soymilk

I love milk tea especially milk tea made with soymilk. Most royal milk tea I tried before are made from powder, and I could usually tell if it is made with powder or not. But this one at Royal T was brewed fresh. Like most soymilk that was brewed with soymilk, it was very light but good. I couldn't taste the rose but it does taste different from regular black milk tea.

Kawaii High Tea Platter - Hello Kitty sugar cookie topper, a mini vanilla cupcake, a mini red velvet cupcake, two mini panini sandwiches, two vegetable maki, a cookie, a brownie bite and fresh berries.

The cookie was very hard, the cupcakes weren't moist, and the maki was tasteless. The only thing I like out of this platter was the sandwich because it actually had taste and the right texture. It was quite disappointing but at least the presentation was very cute.

Hello Kitty Waffle - Four mini Hello Kitty characters shaped Belgium Waffle with fresh berries, whipped cream and maple syrup

Again it was very cute presentation, but tasted very ordinary.

Assorted Cupcakes

I did not buy any of the regular sized cupcakes from Royal T after tasting the ones that came with the platter. I think the mini ones are dried because it is harder to control the moisture of mini cupcakes since they are so small and could only retain so much moisture. So I can't say these bigger ones will be dried either, but they sure look very cute.

The service from Royal /T Cafe was nothing like the Japanese maid cafe that my friends described. The maids at Royal /T act just like regular waitress because this is America! Having waitresses feed you food and pour milk in your coffee and such probably seems too degrading here. So...the maid costumes are just the waitresses' uniforms. They will only bring you your food and pour water for you, they do not feed you, mix your coffee for you, etc etc. So do not order them around when you are there. =]