Maid Cafe Simulator Beginner Guide: How to Run Your Cafe

Maid Cafe Simulator puts you in charge of a rundown cafe inherited from your father, tasking you with transforming it into a three-star Maidchelin establishment alongside five kemonomimi maids. Success in your first week relies on understanding shift pacing, setting up drink stations, assigning your staff to the right duty roster tasks, and staying on top of recurring utility bills.

The Daily Shift Loop and Cashier Checkout

Each business day follows a set schedule starting outside the front entrance. To begin trading, turn the hanging sign from closed to open. Customers will enter, choose a seat, and wait for service.

1. Take Orders: Walk up to seated customers to take their drink requests, or allow assigned floor maids to take orders directly.
2. Prepare Drinks: Carry the ordered beverage from your preparation stations to the customer's table.
3. Clear Tables: Once a customer finishes their drink, clean the used cup or trash from the table to free up the seat for the next guest.
4. Process Checkouts: Customers line up at the register when finished. Click the scanner to scan every receipt on the counter. The screen displays the total due, the cash handed over, and the required change.
5. Count Change Accurately: Click the exact combination of bills ($50, $20, $10, $5, $1) and coins (50¢, 25¢, 10¢, 5¢, 1¢) to match the change amount before confirming payment. Giving correct change builds toward achievements such as Exact Change Pro.
6. Close for the Day: When shift hours conclude around late afternoon or early evening, flip the sign back to closed, clean any remaining cups, and interact with the inner lounge door to advance the day.

Recruiting Staff and Assigning the Duty Roster

Your cafe cannot run efficiently with a solo manager. After Day 1, your father introduces your first applicant, and you gradually assemble your kemonomimi maid team.

Hiring Your First Maids

• Omu: A white tiger kemonomimi who joins on Day 2 after passing her interview. She is eager to learn and suggests turning the failing shop into a full-fledged maid cafe.
• Mina: A stray dog kemonomimi who breaks into the cafe looking for desserts. Taking her in expands your staff to two working maids.
• Yuki: An efficient recruit encountered during city excursions who joins later to expand your shift capacity.

The Attendance Board and Duty Roster

Before flipping the open sign each morning, step outside to check the attendance board. Drag the photo checkies of the maids you want on shift onto the board. Maids consume stamina while working, so monitor their condition regularly.

Next, open the Duty Roster to customize their responsibilities. Clicking task slots cycles them through blank, check, and double-check:

• Blank: The maid will not perform this task.
• Single Check: The maid will handle the task when free.
• Double Check: The maid prioritizes this job above all others. Each maid can have one priority double-check assigned.

Available roles include taking orders, serving food, cleaning tables, working the register/cashier, cooking at drink stations, handling troublemakers, hauling deliveries, and entertaining guests at game tables. Placing one maid on dedicated checkout while setting yourself or another maid to cooking keeps lines moving quickly.

Drink Stations, Ordering Supplies, and Kitchen Automation

Starting out, your cafe only serves basic canned cola. Expanding your menu requires buying equipment and ordering fresh ingredients through the phone shop app.

Ordering Ingredients

Open the shop app on your in-game phone to order supplies like lemons, apples, oranges, milk, cocoa, and coffee beans. Deliveries arrive in boxes carried to your door by automated Maidroid delivery drones. Pick up boxes and place items onto your ingredient shelves or store boxes on dedicated box shelving. Empty cardboard boxes can be tossed directly into the trash can or the dumpster outside.

Drink Preparation Equipment

• Basic Shaker: Used for basic shaken fruit beverages like Lemon Juice and Lemon Apple Juice.
• Enhanced Shaker ($90): Operates faster, holds double the ingredients, and handles more complex mixtures.
• Blender: Blends multi-fruit drinks and juice combinations.
• Basic Brewer ($110): Brews hot coffee, espresso bases, and warm chocolate drinks.

Early Recipe Overview

Automating the Cook Station

Manually shaking drinks limits your capacity during rush hour. To automate production:

1. Walk up to the kitchen cook station and select the recipe you want prepared.
2. Set the desired production quantity to infinite.
3. Assign a maid to the cooking task on the duty roster.
4. Ensure shelves stay stocked with the required ingredients. The assigned maid will continuously craft and restock drinks as long as ingredients remain available.

Expanding Cafe Layout, Security, and Utilities

As your customer volume increases, your initial single-table dining area will cause negative reviews from guests who leave due to lack of seating.

Furniture and Floor Upgrades

• Seating: Buy 1-person and 2-person tables from the furniture catalog. Place them away from counter choke points so maids and guests can navigate freely.
• Hall Expansion: Paying for hall expansions widens the interior room, giving you space for additional dining tables, game tables, and trash cans.
• Outdoor Display Case: Upgrading the display stand outside your shop allows you to showcase more menu items. The fuller and more varied your display case is, the more customers will enter and order higher-margin drinks.

Handling Troublemakers

Not all patrons behave. Troublemakers appear with distinct overhead markers and can disrupt your guests. When one enters:

• Equip your ladle or click the attack action to strike and knock them out.
• Pick them up and carry them straight outside to the trash area.
• Alternatively, assign a maid with high combat priority to security on the duty roster to deal with troublemakers automatically.

Paying Utility and Management Bills

Every seven business days, the cafe receives bills for electricity and management fees via the utility bills app on your phone.

• Bills can be paid early at any time through the app.
• If you lack sufficient funds on the due date, an interest penalty is added to the unpaid balance, carrying it over to the next cycle.
• Failing to pay immediately will not shut down your cafe, but accumulated debt reduces your net profits and slows down equipment investments.

Building Maid Bonds and Managing Tips

Raising bond levels unlocks personal storylines, messages, and stat upgrades across movement speed, cooking speed, service speed, and cashier efficiency.

• Head Pats and Conversations: Interacting directly with your maids and holding the mouse cursor over their heads gives them head pats, boosting affection.
• Feeding Snacks: Offer food or leftover drinks to your staff after shifts to restore stamina and raise bonds. Keep in mind there is a daily feeding limit per maid (typically up to two items).
• Night Messages: After closing, maids will occasionally text your phone from the laundromat or their walk home. Replying to their messages progresses your relationship.
• Customer Tips: When maids serve customers, tips accumulate. You can collect these tips from the maid interface to boost your cafe's working cash. However, taking tips too frequently will hurt her feelings. Allowing tips to build up uncollected can prompt the maid to convert them into a special gift for you instead.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What happens if I cannot afford utility bills on the due date?

The game does not trigger an instant game over or shut down your cafe if you are short on cash when bills arrive. Instead, a one-time interest charge is added to the unpaid amount, and the debt rolls over into the next billing cycle.

Why are customers walking away without entering?

Customers will leave if all available tables are occupied, or if they check the outdoor display case and see no empty seats inside. Buying additional one-seat or two-seat tables and expanding your hall solves this issue.

How do I make maids prepare drinks automatically?

You must register the specific recipe and set its target quantity (such as infinite) directly at the cook station, keep the required ingredients stocked on nearby shelves, and ensure at least one maid has cooking enabled on the duty roster.

How do I get more soda if I run out early on?

Before you unlock advanced drink recipes, you can purchase additional cola cans directly from the street vending machine outside your cafe for 50 cents each, then resell them through your cafe menu for a markup.