I have been to neither, but I'd say Hooter's is more of a sex thing than most maid cafes. You go to Hooters to be served by scantly clad women. You go to maid cafes to interact with the servers who are dressed like stereotypical rich family maids. Those interactions go from simply talking about your life, to playing board games. For people not familiar with Japanese social culture that might seem strange, but it's often the only human connection they can afford. From what I heard from women who worked as "maids", it's rarely sexual. Their customers simply don't have anyone else to freely talk to.