Cafeteria

 A cafeteria, called canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether in a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or lunchroom. Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses, although the English term came from the Spanish term cafetería, which carries the same meaning.

Instead of table service, there are food-serving counters/stalls or booths, either in a line or allowing arbitrary walking paths. Customers take the food that they desire as they walk along, placing it on a tray. In addition, there are often stations where customers order food, particularly items such as hamburgers or tacos which must be served hot and can be immediately prepared with little waiting. Alternatively, the patron is given a number and the item is brought to their table. For some food items and drinks, such as sodas, water, or the like, customers collect an empty container, pay at check-out, and fill the container after check-out. Free unlimited-second servings are often allowed under this system. For legal purposes, this system is rarely, if at all, used for alcoholic drinks in the United States.

Customers are either charged a flat rate for admission or pay at check-out for each item. Some self-service cafeterias charge by the weight of items on a patron's plate. In universities and colleges, some students pay for three meals a day by making a single large payment for the entire semester.

As cafeterias require few employees, they are often found within a larger institution, catering to the employees or clientele of that institution. For example, schools, colleges and their residence halls, department stores, hospitals, museums, places of worship, amusement parks, military bases, prisons, factories, and office buildings often have cafeterias. Although some of such institutions self-operate their cafeterias, many outsource their cafeterias to a food service management company or lease space to independent businesses to operate food service facilities. The three largest food service management companies servicing institutions are Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo.

A Luby's cafeteria in Shenandoah, Texas, United States. At one time, cafeteria-style restaurant chains dominated the culture of the Southern United States, and to a lesser extent the Southwest and Midwest. There were numerous prominent chains, some of which are now defunct.

Two other major American cafeteria chains continue to operate, on a lesser scale: Piccadilly in the southeast, and Luby's in Texas. Another, Morrison's Cafeteria, survives as a single, Piccadilly-owned location in Mobile, Alabama, and a fourth, Bickford's in New England, converted to a non-cafeteria chain and closed all but one restaurant.

There have also been a number of smaller chains in the United States, sometimes located in and around a single city. Existing examples include MCL Restaurant & Bakery, with locations in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; S&S Cafeterias, in Georgia and South Carolina; K&W Cafeterias, in North Carolina and Virginia; Niki's in Birmingham, Alabama; and the Jewish deli-style cafeteria Manny's in Chicago, Illinois.