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 maid café, Cure Maid Café, was established in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan in March 2001, but maid cafés are becoming increasingly popular. As they have done so, the increased competition has made some use unusual tactics in order to attract customers. They have also expanded overseas to countries like China, South Korea, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

The maid costume varies from café to café, but most are based upon the costume of French maids, often composed of a dress, a petticoat, a pinafore, a matching hair accessory (such as a frill or a bow), and stockings. Sometimes, employees wear rabbit or cat ears with their outfits to add more appeal.

Waitresses in maid cafés are often chosen on the basis of their appearance; most are young, attractive and innocent-looking women. For example, Royal Milk Café, a popular maid café, reports that the average age of its waitresses is 20.

A maidservant or in current usage housemaid or maid is a female employed in domestic service.

Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was historically the case for many households. In the contemporary Western world, comparatively few households can afford live-in domestic help, usually compromising on periodic cleaners. In less developed nations, very large differences in the income of urban and rural households and between different socio-economic classes, fewer educated women and limited opportunities for working women ensures a labour source for domestic work.

Historically many maids suffered from Prepatellar bursitis, an inflammation of the Prepatellar bursa caused by long periods spent on the knees for purposes of scrubbing and fire-lighting, leading to the condition attracting the colloquial name of "Housemaid's Knee".

Maids perform typical domestic chores such as cooking, ironing, washing, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, walking the family dog, and taking care of children. In many places in some poor countries, maids often take on the role of a nurse in taking care of the elderly and people with disabilities. Many maids are required by their employers to wear a uniform.

A café (/ˈkæfeɪ/ or /kæˈfeɪ/), also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee. The name derives from the French, Portuguese and Spanish word for the drink and is often pronounced "kaff" (/ˈkæff/) in the British English.

In the United States, "cafe" may refer to an informal restaurant offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches, also known as a "coffee shop", while what is regarded as a café elsewhere is termed a coffeehouse.

In most European countries, such as Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, etc., the term café implies primarily serving coffee, typically accompanied by a slice of cake/tart/pie, a "Danish pastry", a bun, or similar sweet pastry. Many (or most) cafés also serve light meals such as sandwiches. European cafés often have tables on the pavement as well as indoors. Some cafés also serve alcoholic beverages, particularly in Southern European countries.

In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland a café (with the acute accent) is similar to those in other European countries, while a cafe (without acute accent, and often pronounced "caff") is more likely to be a greasy spoon style eating place, serving mainly fried food, in particular breakfast dishes. In the Netherlands and Belgium, a café is the equivalent of a bar, and also sells alcoholic beverages. In the Netherlands a koffiehuis serves coffee, while a coffee shop (using the English term) sells soft drugs (cannabis and hashish) and is generally not allowed to sell alcoholic beverages.