Canteen-style restaurants

[PTR 444]

One of the main decision-fatigue inducing situations for a lot of people is working out where to go for hot food, especially if they are short on time. In this day and age, the eating out market seems to be saturated with the following:

• Table service restaurants, where a waiter takes your order and delivers your food and drinks after a long wait. Usually on the expensive side.
• Pub-style restaurants, where you order and pay at the bar with the food delivered to your table after a wait. Cheaper, but the atmosphere can be very rowdy at peak times and is not ideal for everyone.
• Fast food restaurants, same ordering principle as above except you wait at the counter to collect your order and usually take away afterwards. Food is often eaten on the go and renowned for lacking in nutrition.
• All-you-can-eat buffets, where you usually pay a set price upon entry and then help yourself to unlimited food. You really do need to eat a LOT of food to make the cost worthwhile though.

There is however another type of restaurant which is much less common, and that is the canteen-style offering. Generally found at offices, schools and hospitals, this setup works with the customer queuing in a line to be served ready-to-eat food directly onto a plate by catering staff (better known as dinner ladies!), and then taking it on a tray to a table ready to eat immediately. While it might not be for everyone, I feel that it has several advantages over other types of restaurants in regards to the factors listed below. The only commercial canteen restaurant I have eaten at recently is the one at my local IKEA, so I will use this as an example:

• Convenience: The unique selling point of a canteen-style restaurant is that no waiting is required. All the food is ready to be eaten immediately after ordering. This works well for time-sensitive people, and I have found IKEA’s canteen-style setup really good for speediness on days when I need to be in a particular place at a particular time for work-related purposes.
• Cost: While this may vary, I’ve found IKEA’s restaurant very reasonably-priced with good offers on particular days and the ability to use the family card on weekdays. I guess the simplified menu helps to bring costs down, speaking of which…
• Choice: While the limitation of options might seem like a bad thing at first, it’s actually not the case at all if there is something on the menu you like. It also helps those people with decision fatigue as it means they don’t spend so much time contemplating about what to order with fewer options available.
• Healthiness: I’ve found meals at IKEA tend to be healthier than the average eating out offerings. While some individual items might be high in fat or salt, the meals do at least come with a variety of vegetables which is nonexistent in fast food places, and rare in restaurants unless you specifically order a salad.

I can say that canteen-style restaurants have their unique selling point and fill a gap in the market for cheap, speedy and healthy hot food. While they may not suit everyone, they work particularly well for myself when I am about to undertake a long shift. It’s a shame there aren’t more places like these around, unless they are just not common down south or I simply haven’t discovered them yet!

 

[GusB]

There are a few places I've been over the last few years that could be categorised as canteen type establishments. Brodie Countryfare, near Forres is quite an upmarket retailer on the A96 which has reasonably priced food. There's a garden centre on the outskirts of Forres which also has a similar arrangement (excellent soup, too) and in Inverness there's Dobbies Garden Centre which is also canteen-style.

Department stores were usually quite good for this sort of setup, but sadly they're becoming more rare as time goes on.

 

[43096]

There is however another type of restaurant which is much less common, and that is the canteen-style offering. Generally found at offices, schools and hospitals

Apparently there's also one on the Death Star...

 

[Davester50]

Department stores were usually quite good for this sort of setup, but sadly they're becoming more rare as time goes on.

That's just reminded me of the 1970s and a trip to the Littlewoods cafe in Dundee. Rank lookwarm food kept going by the orange glow lamps.
Happy days!

Thanks!

 

[hexagon789]

Rank lookwarm food kept going by the orange glow lamps.

It was pretty much the same just before they closed their stores and became online only. Certainly the branch up Sauchiehall St in Glasgow, the restaurant decor looked like it hadn't been changed since the 1970s!

It’s a shame there aren’t more places like these around, unless they are just not common down south or I simply haven’t discovered them yet!

I went to a brilliant one in France some years ago (I want to say 2008, but it could be slightly earlier). There was a counter for fish, a counter for pasta dishes/rice dishes, a counter for meat dishes and essentially free-for-all on salad vegetables. Afterwards there was yet another counter for desserts with a huge selection of ice cream.

It was in the food hall of a shopping centre but alas I cannot remember which one.

A canteen-style restaurant that does still exist is in the Swiss department store-chain of Coop. Not as wide a selection as that one in France, but they had some good quality and varied choices, I had a Turkey escalope with a thyme-cream sauce, French fries, green beans, some mixed salad leaves, with a coffee and a mixed berry tart for about SFR13 (probably about £9.60 at that time) - the coffee machine did more different coffee based drinks than I even knew existed! They even had sushi and various Asian noodle/rice dishes on offer.

 

[baz962]

I have also used ikeas and iirc Costco. Also my local hospital. Most of my big supermarkets in Bedford have their version too . Have used both Morrison and Tesco ones.

 

[najaB]

I have also used ikeas and iirc Costco. Also my local hospital. Most of my big supermarkets in Bedford have their version too . Have used both Morrison and Tesco ones.

I was also going to mention Morrisons - they operate a hybrid system where some items are served canteen style and some things can be ordered and are then brought to your table.

 

[Gloster]

I went to a brilliant one in France some years ago (I want to say 2008, but it could be slightly earlier). There was a counter for fish, a counter for pasta dishes/rice dishes, a counter for meat dishes and essentially free-for-all on salad vegetables. Afterwards there was yet another counter for desserts with a huge selection of ice cream.

It was in the food hall of a shopping centre but alas I cannot remember which one.

It could well have been a Flunch, although there were one or two other chains. Flinch’s main concentration of branches was in the North and East if I remember correctly; their head office was somewhere in the Lille area. For the first course, cheese and dessert you just picked up a prepared plate, but often the main course was either served out in front of you or, for things like steak, cooked. I believe that in the years since I used them a lot, they have tended to move out of town centres to out-of-town shopping centres.

 

[DelayRepay]

I was also going to mention Morrisons - they operate a hybrid system where some items are served canteen style and some things can be ordered and are then brought to your table.

It must vary by store. At my local Morrisons everything is ordered at the till. The only things you pick up yourself are cold items like sandwiches and pieces of cake.

I think they used to be canteen style quite a few years ago though.

The only places I know that are still canteen style are John Lewis and Dobbies Garden Centre (both already mentioned). Used to be more common when there were more department stores on the high street.

 

[2192]

Royal Derby Hospital, Uttoxeter Rd., had a good popular one, but it shut down when Covid started for health reasons.
I don't know if it has restarted. If it has, I might go there for Sunday lunch.

 

[yorksrob]

I wish we had something like this in the middle of Leeds.

It could operate as a giant breakfast buffet in the mornings.

 

[Phil56]

Lots of universities have refectories which are often "canteen" style with various counters where you pick your own food or are served hot food from the counter by the counter staff. We discovered them when doing open days with our son. Usually relatively affordable prices too. Since then, we've been to a few when we've wanted a meal but wanted something quick without it being from a fast food chain. If you're in a university town, a quick google tells you where the Uni's cafes/restaurants are located!

 

[DelW]

Motorway service areas always used to have a large canteen style eating area, though many have now fragmented into various (franchised?) fast food counters around a shared seating area. Service was usually a mixture of self-service for cold items, and servers behind the counter for hot meals.

The last time I stopped at Tebay services on the M6 in around 2019, it still worked that way - there were several counters with ready-cooked hot food as well as displays with self serve bakery items etc. You collected the combination you wanted on a tray and paid at the end. Good quality too, although the prices did reflect that, and it's my preferred stop when going to/from Scotland.

 

[yorksrob]

Lots of universities have refectories which are often "canteen" style with various counters where you pick your own food or are served hot food from the counter by the counter staff. We discovered them when doing open days with our son. Usually relatively affordable prices too. Since then, we've been to a few when we've wanted a meal but wanted something quick without it being from a fast food chain. If you're in a university town, a quick google tells you where the Uni's cafes/restaurants are located!

The one next to my work seems to have defaulted to "street food" recently.

 

[Kite159]

Would Toby Carvery come underneath your canteen style layout?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Motorway service areas always used to have a large canteen style eating area, though many have now fragmented into various (franchised?) fast food counters around a shared seating area. Service was usually a mixture of self-service for cold items, and servers behind the counter for hot meals.

The last time I stopped at Tebay services on the M6 in around 2019, it still worked that way - there were several counters with ready-cooked hot food as well as displays with self serve bakery items etc. You collected the combination you wanted on a tray and paid at the end. Good quality too, although the prices did reflect that, and it's my preferred stop when going to/from Scotland.

The downside of this layout was explained by Jasper Carrott at one point - "all day breakfast that really has been there all day".

 

[najaB]

It must vary by store. At my local Morrisons everything is ordered at the till. The only things you pick up yourself are cold items like sandwiches and pieces of cake.

To be honest, it's been a while since I've been to one so it may well have changed.

 

[PTR 444]

Lots of universities have refectories which are often "canteen" style with various counters where you pick your own food or are served hot food from the counter by the counter staff. We discovered them when doing open days with our son. Usually relatively affordable prices too. Since then, we've been to a few when we've wanted a meal but wanted something quick without it being from a fast food chain. If you're in a university town, a quick google tells you where the Uni's cafes/restaurants are located!

The main eatery at my university used to be canteen-style, but due to COVID-19 they changed it so that you now have to order from an app and collect your food from the serving hatch when it is ready (signalled by the buzz of a pager given to the customer upon ordering). It has remained that way ever since with the blinds at the canteen hatches rolled down, and while it might have its advantages in that you do not have to get up from your table, the uncertainty of the waiting time has made it less appealing. If I want quick, healthy food, I’ll now cook in bulk at my flat and dish up the leftovers in Tupperware containers to eat over the course of a week.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Aug 2022 ==

Would Toby Carvery come underneath your canteen style layout?

I would say so, yes. It’s been at least 5 years since I last ate at a carvery but it wasn’t very good. I remember it working on a hybrid model where you order the meat and have it delivered to you at your table, then go up to the canteen servery for a choice of potatoes and vegetables. It must have been self-service as I remember people would help themselves to more than needed, meaning there wasn’t enough for everyone else.

 

[Dai Corner]

Pillars in Queen Street, Cardiff is the only example I can think of.

Having eaten in canteens at school and through much of my working life I rather miss them now I'm retired.

 

[najaB]

I remember it working on a hybrid model where you order the meat and have it delivered to you at your table, then go up to the canteen servery for a choice of potatoes and vegetables. It must have been self-service as I remember people would help themselves to more than needed, meaning there wasn’t enough for everyone else.

The ones I've been to the only ordering was the size plate you wanted, and if it was one Yorkshire Pudding or two. After that they carved the meat for you and you helped yourself to everything else.

 

[Gloster]

When I went to university as a mature, if not over-ripe, student the main meal in the union was served by the staff and the rest you collected from various tables. As it was not a university full of darlings with deep pockets, it always surprised me how most people fed themselves at the salad bar, which cost £1 for a side-plate on which you could put what you wanted. Most people who used the bar would have a dab of this, a spot of that and a little bit of something else and not even half-fill the plate. I used to build a rampart of rice around the rim of the plate, fill the centre with loose items, put oversized stuff (like runner beans) across the top and then add a lump of something sticky on the top to hold it all in place.

 

[Broucek]

I'm very happy with canteen-style in the office or at client sites. However I HATE this when I'm travelling (airports etc.) as carrying a tray is an utter pain if I'm travelling alone and have luggage....

 

[hexagon789]

For the first course, cheese and dessert you just picked up a prepared plate, but often the main course was either served out in front of you or, for things like steak, cooked.

It was exactly like that, but the name you quoted isn't familiar

 

[Ostrich]

One of our local independent pubs has a Tuesday carvery - find a table, then pay the cost of a plate (various sizes!) at the bar. When it's your turn, you get a nod from an assistant to go up to the carvery itself, get your plate off a stack, the chef carves you your choice of meat, then it's help yourself to potatoes, veg and gravy. The parsnips, however, tend to be rationed for some reason that has always eluded me! You can go back for more veg as many times as you like.
Works very well, and very popular with the old folk in the area (like us!)

They apparently do a Saturday brunch on the same basis, but we've not been to that.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If you like buffet breakfasts, you don't have to be staying at Premier Inn to eat at one, at least the ones where the breakfast is served in the adjacent pub. Book a slot on the Web and just rock up and pay on the day. They may be less willing to accept walk ins at ones with just a breakfast room as there is often not enough capacity, though.

 

[daveo]

There used to be a member of the Whitbread group called "Taybarns" which was just a long counter split into various sections (chip shop, Chinese, salad, pizza, roast meal etc) that you helped yourself to. Upside - plenty of choice. Downside - some of the food had obviously been sitting for some time.

I'm not sure if they've all gone but the one in Wigan was changed to a "Brewers Fayre" a couple of years ago.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There used to be a member of the Whitbread group called "Taybarns" which was just a long counter split into various sections (chip shop, Chinese, salad, pizza, roast meal etc) that you helped yourself to. Upside - plenty of choice. Downside - some of the food had obviously been sitting for some time.

I'm not sure if they've all gone but the one in Wigan was changed to a "Brewers Fayre" a couple of years ago.

All gone I believe. The Lancashire Hotpots did an amusing song about them!

 

[D6130]

Harveys in Halifax - the last remaining independent family-owned department store in Yorkshire, if not in the whole UK - has an excellent counter service restaurant with a wide variety of hot and cold dishes. It's very popular with 'ladies who lunch'.

 

[deltic]

Many "attractions" have canteen arrangements eg zoos, amusement parks - they presumably work best when you need to serve large numbers of people at roughly the same time. Not sure if food hygiene regulations have killed some of them. There was one place I was at a number of years ago where the staff were sticking thermometers into cooked chicken portions and binning half of them which could not have been good for profits.

 

[najaB]

Not sure if food hygiene regulations have killed some of them. There was one place I was at a number of years ago where the staff were sticking thermometers into cooked chicken portions and binning half of them which could not have been good for profits.

Though, no doubt better for profits than dealing with a wrongful death suit!