Difference between "canteen" and "cafeteria"

Are there any differences between canteen and cafeteria?

In India, usually an eating place attached to an office, factory or school is called a canteen. Of course, in some new offices it is called cafeteria, but government offices and factories still call them canteens.

In US, I have never heard canteen used except for military canteen. Is it the same in British English too?

Solution 1:

In British English a place that you eat, at work / supplied by work would be a canteen, but cafeteria is also equally common. I would imagine cafeteria is a safer choice so that both AE and BE would understand.

But canteen a little bit old-fashioned, mostly because offices don't have canteens or cafeterias and we don't have any factories anymore.

Solution 2:

Rest, to actually answer your question:

1. "Canteen" tends to mean commissary associated with an office/factory. You CAN also use "Cafeteria" in the same way, but "Canteen" is more specific, more normal.

2. "Cafeteria" can mean the cafe/restaurant, for customers, YOU FIND IN A LARGE DEPARTMENT STORE. (Typically either in the basement or on the top floor.)**

3. "Canteen" - generally - tends to be a bit derogatory and/or old-fashioned.

4. Note that a "Cafeteria" is specifically more down-market (cheaper, worse) than a "restaurant." Specifically note that "Cafeteria" always implies you get the food from a long service area - with trays, you know? And carry the food yourself, on trays, to an unserved table. In contrast at a "restaurant" or "cafe" you sit down and are served.

5. Generally this is all more UK than USA, as others have pointed out.

6. In my opinion -- both words would be easily understood, by every English speaker, in every country. If you said "the factory canteen" (or cafeteria) every English-speaker everywhere would understand you - but to repeat point (5), it is odder and perhaps "British-sounding" in the USA. There are some claims by commenters from the USA that some people in the USA would not know what the word means.

**Just FYI, in a SHOPPING MALL, there is always an area with a number of fast-food places arranged together. This is always called by the silly term "the food court."

Footnote: in the USA (and indeed, perhaps UK too), in certain circles "Canteen" can be a bit trendy-cool-retro. Particularly in connection to the film or advertising industry. Thus, in Hollywood California, in the 90s there is (or was) a painfully "hip" expensive restaurant just called "The Canteen." Even though the name is seemingly dowdy, the reference is to the ultra-trendy "canteen" on a film-set or at a movie studio.

Finally as Keith mentioned, "Canteen" also means a water bottle, particularly military (both UK and USA).

Solution 3:

In American English, the term "canteen" most often invokes images of a water-storage container designed to be carried at the hip and commonly used by outdoorsmen (hikers, soldiers, hunters, etc). The term as it refers to an eating place in American usage is most often found in the film industry, where it has become synonymous with the commissary on a studio lot, or the cafeteria/craft services area of an on-location film set. This is most likely a "bleed-over" from British English usage described in other answers.

Solution 4:

I've always lived in the US (54 years) and cannot presently recall hearing the word canteen used to refer to an eating establishment except in old military films, sections of books or articles dealing with military food and drink service three or more generations ago, and WWII era(?) "Hollywood Canteen." I briefly served in the Marines. Never saw a canteen which wasn't a personal water or beverage container to be attached to a belt.