What is "cafeteria"

Cafeteria \Caf`e*te"ri*a\, n. [Cf. F. cafeti[`e]re.]

1. A restaurant or caf['e] at which the patrons serve themselves with food kept at a counter, typically paying a cashier at the end of the counter and taking the food to tables to eat. [U. S.]

2. a room within a building functioning in the same manner as a cafeteria[1]. In certain organizations, as schools, the food may be provided gratis.

1839, American English, from Mexican Spanish cafeteria "coffee store," from café "coffee" (see coffee) + Spanish -tería "place where something is done" (usually business). The ending came to be understood popularly as meaning "help-yourself" (as though café + -teria) and was extended to new formation with that sense from c.1923.

n. 1 A restaurant in which customers select their food at a counter then carry it on a tray to a table to eat 2 A dining area in an institution where meals may be purchased (as above) or brought in from elsewhere

n. a restaurant where you serve yourself and pay a cashier

Cafeteria may refer to:

• Cafeteria, a room for eating in
• Cafeteria (bicosoecid), a genus of bicosoecid, a group of unicellular flagellates
• Cafeteria roenbergensis, the type species of the genus.

Cafeteria is a genus of marine bicosoecid described in 1988 by Tom Fenchel and D. J. Patterson. It was created after the discovery of a new species Cafeteria roenbergensis, a tiny (5–10 µm) eukaryotic organism that is eaten by protozoa and small invertebrates. The name is meant to indicate the importance of the genus in the food web.

At least three species are recognised:

• Cafeteria marsupialis Larsen & Patterson, 1990
• Cafeteria minuta (Griessmann, 1913) Larsen & Patterson, 1990
• Cafeteria roenbergensis Fenchel & D.J.Patterson, 1988

A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether 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 canteen (in British English). Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses, despite being the Spanish translation of the English term.

Instead of table service, there are food-serving counters/stalls, either in a line or allowing arbitrary walking paths. Customers take the food they require as they walk along, placing it on a tray. In addition, there are often stations where customers order food and wait while it is prepared, particularly for items such as hamburgers or tacos which must be served hot and can be immediately prepared. 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 the check-out, and fill the container after the check-out. Free unlimited second servings are often allowed under this system. For legal purposes (and the consumption patterns of customers), this system is rarely, if at all, used for alcoholic beverages in the US.

Customers are either charged a flat rate for admission (as in a buffet) or pay at the 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 clientele of that institution. For example, schools, colleges and their residence halls, department stores, hospitals, museums, military bases, prisons, and office buildings often have cafeterias.

At one time, upscale cafeteria-style restaurants dominated the culture of the Southern United States, and to a lesser extent the Midwest. There were numerous prominent chains of them: Bickford's, Morrison's Cafeteria, Piccadilly Cafeteria, S&W Cafeteria, Apple House, Luby's, K&W, Britling, Wyatt's Cafeteria, and Blue Boar among them. Currently two Midwestern chains still exist, Sloppy Jo's Lunchroom and Manny's, which are both located in Illinois. There were also a number of smaller chains, usually located in and around a single city. These institutions, with the exception of K&W, went into a decline in the 1960s with the rise of fast food and were largely finished off in the 1980s by the rise of " casual dining". A few chains — particularly Luby's and Piccadilly Cafeterias (which took over the Morrison's chain in 1998) — continue to fill some of the gap left by the decline of the older chains. Some of the smaller Midwestern chains, such as MCL Cafeterias centered on Indianapolis, are still very much in business.