A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the US, 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 canteeen Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses, although the English term came from Latin American Spanish, where it had and still has the meaning "coffeehouse".