Canteen vs. Bar — What's the Difference?
By Maham Liaqat & Fiza Rafique — Updated on March 29, 2024
A canteen serves as a place for meals or snacks, often in institutional settings, while a bar primarily offers alcoholic drinks and sometimes snacks.
Difference Between Canteen and Bar
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A canteen is typically found within workplaces, schools, or military establishments, providing a variety of meals and beverages meant for the regular dining needs of its patrons. It's a communal eating space where people gather to consume prepared food, emphasizing convenience and speed of service. Whereas a bar is an establishment focused on serving alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, and spirits, often accompanied by light snacks or pub food. Bars are social spaces where elders gather to drink, socialize, and sometimes enjoy live music or entertainment.
The primary purpose of a canteen is to provide a convenient and affordable meal option in settings where access to other food services may be limited. It operates mainly during meal times and aims to serve a large number of people efficiently. In contrast, bars aim to create a relaxing and entertaining environment where youngs can unwind, often operating late into the night and focusing more on the quality of drinks and the overall experience than on providing full meals.
Canteens often have a self-service model, where patrons select from pre-made dishes displayed in a serving line, leading to quicker service times and a focus on efficiency. Bars, however, typically offer table service or a counter where customers order their drinks directly from a bartender, emphasizing personalized service and the experience of being served.
The social dynamics in canteens and bars also differ significantly. Canteens are more utilitarian, focusing on the necessity of eating with facilities designed for quick dining and minimal social interaction. Bars, conversely, are designed as social hubs, encouraging interaction among patrons, with layouts that facilitate conversation, such as communal tables, bar seating, and lounge areas.
Comparison Chart
Primary Offering
Meals and non-alcoholic beverages
Alcoholic beverages, sometimes snacks or light meals
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Setting
Workplaces, schools, military establishments
Social settings, often standalone establishments
Purpose
Provide convenient and affordable meals
Socialization, relaxation, and entertainment
Service Model
Often self-service
Table service or counter service by bartenders
Operating Hours
Mainly during meal times
Often late into the night
Menu
Varied, catering to different dietary needs
Focused on drinks, with limited food options
Social Atmosphere
Utilitarian, minimal social interaction
Designed for social interaction and entertainment
Compare with Definitions
Canteen
A place within an institution offering prepared meals.
The school canteen serves lunch to students and faculty.
Bar
An establishment serving alcoholic drinks.
The downtown bar is known for its extensive cocktail menu.
Canteen
Operates on a self-service basis.
Patrons at the canteen choose their meals from a variety of options available.
Bar
Provides table or counter service.
Guests at the bar can order their drinks directly from the bartender.
Canteen
Focused on efficiency and convenience.
The military canteen is designed to feed hundreds of personnel quickly.
Bar
May offer light snacks or pub food.
Aside from drinks, the bar serves wings, fries, and nachos.
Canteen
Caters to a broad audience.
The company canteen offers vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options.
Bar
Offers a social and entertaining environment.
Live bands perform at the bar every Friday night.
Canteen
Provides a communal eating space.
The canteen area is equipped with large tables to accommodate groups.
Bar
A long rigid piece of wood, metal, or similar material, typically used as an obstruction, fastening, or weapon
Bars on the windows
An iron bar
Canteen
A restaurant provided by an organization such as a college, factory, or company for its students or staff.
Bar
A counter in a pub, restaurant, or cafe across which drinks or refreshments are served
Standing at the bar
Canteen
A small water bottle, as used by soldiers or campers.
Bar
A barrier or restriction to an action or advance
Political differences are not necessarily a bar to a good relationship
Canteen
A specially designed case or box containing a set of cutlery.
Bar
Any of the short sections or measures, typically of equal time value, into which a piece of music is divided, shown on a score by vertical lines across the stave
The opening bars of the first hymn
Canteen
A snack bar or small cafeteria, as on a military installation.
Bar
A partition in a court room, now usually notional, beyond which most people may not pass and at which an accused person stands
The prisoner at the bar
Canteen
A recreational facility, bar, or small general store formerly established for the patronage of soldiers.
Bar
The profession of barrister
His dismissal from the Singapore Bar
Canteen
A recreation hall or social club where refreshments are available.
Bar
A unit of pressure equivalent to a hundred thousand newtons per square metre or approximately one atmosphere.
Canteen
A temporary or mobile eating place, especially one set up in an emergency.
Bar
Fasten (something, especially a door or window) with a bar or bars
She bolted and barred the door
Canteen
A usually metal container for carrying drinking water, as on a hike.
Bar
Prevent or prohibit (someone) from doing something or from going somewhere
Journalists had been barred from covering the elections
Canteen
A box with compartments for carrying cooking gear and eating utensils.
Bar
Mark (something) with bars or stripes
His face was barred with light
Canteen
A soldier's mess kit.
Bar
Except for
His kids were all gone now, bar one
Canteen
Chiefly British A box used to store silverware.
Bar
A relatively long, straight, rigid piece of solid material used as a fastener, support, barrier, or structural or mechanical member.
Canteen
A small cafeteria or snack bar, especially one in a military establishment, school, or place of work.
Bar
A solid oblong block of a substance or combination of ingredients, such as soap or candy.
Canteen
A temporary or mobile café used in an emergency or on a film location etc.
Bar
A usually rectangular slice of any of various flat baked confections that are typically dense in texture.
Canteen
A box with compartments for storing eating utensils, silverware etc.
Bar
A rectangular block of a precious metal.
Canteen
A military mess kit.
Bar
See horizontal bar.
Canteen
A water bottle, flask, or other vessel, typically used by a soldier or camper as a bottle for carrying water or liquor for drink
Bar
A horizontal rod that marks the height to be cleared in high jumping or pole vaulting.
Canteen
A small vessel used by soldiers or hikers for carrying water, liquor, or other drink.
Bar
A standard, expectation, or degree of requirement
A leader whose example set a high bar for others.
Canteen
A chest containing culinary and other vessels for military officers in a garrison.
Bar
Something that impedes or prevents action or progress
A poor education was a bar to his ambitions.
Canteen
The sutler's shop in a garrison.
Bar
A ridge, as of sand or gravel, on a shore or streambed, that is formed by the action of tides or currents.
Canteen
A store or small shop within a larger establishment where refreshments and sometimes other supplies are sold. At a military base the canteen may be as large as a general store; within a school or small company it may be only a small counter with very limited supplies, or a snack bar.
Bar
A narrow marking, as a stripe or band.
Canteen
A temporary location where food is dispensed during an emergency.
Bar
A narrow metal or embroidered strip worn on a military uniform indicating rank or service.
Canteen
A flask for carrying water; used by soldiers or travelers
Bar
Chiefly British A small insignia worn on a military decoration indicating that it has been awarded an additional time.
Canteen
Sells food and personal items to personnel at an institution or school or camp etc.
Bar
(Heraldry) A pair of horizontal parallel lines drawn across a shield.
Canteen
A restaurant outside; often for soldiers or policemen
Bar
The nullification, defeat, or prevention of a claim or action.
Canteen
A recreation room in an institution
Bar
The process by which nullification, defeat, or prevention is achieved.
Canteen
Restaurant in a factory; where workers can eat
Bar
The railing in a courtroom separating the participants in a legal proceeding from the spectators.
Bar
A court or courtroom.
Bar
Attorneys considered as a group. Used with the.
Bar
The profession of law. Used with the.
Bar
A vertical line drawn through a staff to mark off a measure.
Bar
A measure.
Bar
Variant of barre.
Bar
A counter at which drinks, especially alcoholic drinks, and sometimes food, are served.
Bar
An establishment or room having such a counter.
Bar
A unit of pressure equal to one million (106) dynes per square centimeter.
Bar
To fasten securely with a long, straight, rigid piece of material
Barred the gate.
Bar
To shut in or confine
Barred themselves in the basement.
Bar
To obstruct or impede; block
Barred the access route.
Bar
To keep out; exclude
Tourists are barred from this room.
Bar
To prohibit or prevent (someone) from doing something
Failing the eye exam barred him from driving.
Bar
To prohibit (an action)
The state bars the dumping of waste in the river.
Bar
(Law) To nullify, defeat, or prevent (a claim or action).
Bar
To rule out; except
Can we bar the possibility of foul play?.
Bar
To mark with stripes or bands.
Bar
Chiefly British Except for; excluding
This was your best performance, bar none.
Bar
A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
The window was protected by steel bars.
Bar
A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is 4 inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.
Ancient Sparta used iron bars instead of handy coins in more valuable alloy, to physically discourage the use of money.
We are expecting a carload of bar tomorrow.
Bar
A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.
Bar of chocolate
Bar of soap
Bar
A broad shaft, band, or stripe.
A bar of light
A bar of colour
Bar
A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
Bar
(typography) Any of various lines used as punctuation or diacritics, such as the pipe ⟨{{!}}⟩, fraction bar (as in 12), and strikethrough (as in Ⱥ), formerly including oblique marks such as the slash.
Bar
(mathematics) The sign indicating that the characteristic of a logarithm is negative, conventionally placed above the digit(s) to show that it applies to the characteristic only and not to the mantissa.
Bar
(physics) A similar sign indicating that the charge on a particle is the negative of its usual value (and that consequently the particle is in fact an antiparticle).
Bar
A business selling alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises, or the premises themselves; a public house.
The street was lined with all-night bars.
Bar
The counter of such premises.
Step up to the bar and order a drink.
Bar
A counter, or simply a cabinet, from which alcoholic drinks are served in a private house or a hotel room.
Bar
, juice bar, etc.}} Premises or a counter serving any type of beverage.
Bar
An establishment where alcohol and sometimes other refreshments are served.
Bar
An informal establishment selling food to be consumed on the premises.
A burger bar
A local fish bar
Bar
An establishment offering cosmetic services.
A nail bar; a brow bar
Bar
An official order or pronouncement that prohibits some activity.
The club has lifted its bar on women members.
Bar
Anything that obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.
Bar
A metasyntactic variable representing an unspecified entity, often the second in a series, following foo.
Suppose we have four objects, foo, bar, baz and quux.
Bar
A dividing line (physical or notional) in the chamber of a legislature beyond which only members and officials may pass.
Bar
The railing surrounding the part of a courtroom in which the judges, lawyers, defendants and witnesses stay.
Bar
The bar exam, the legal licensing exam.
He's studying hard to pass the Bar this time; he's failed it twice before.
Bar
Collectively, lawyers or the legal profession; specifically applied to barristers in some countries, but including all lawyers in others.
He was called to the bar, he became a barrister.
Bar
One of an array of bar-shaped symbols that display the level of something, such as wireless signal strength or battery life remaining.
I don't have any bars in the middle of this desert.
Bar
(music) A vertical line across a musical staff dividing written music into sections, typically of equal durational value.
Bar
(music) One of those musical sections.
Bar
(sports) A horizontal pole that must be crossed in the high jump and pole vault.
Bar
(metaphorical) Any level of achievement regarded as a challenge to be overcome.
Bar
The crossbar.
Bar
(backgammon) The central divider between the inner and outer table of a backgammon board, where stones are placed if they are hit.
Bar
An addition to a military medal, on account of a subsequent act.
Bar
A linear shoaling landform feature within a body of water.
Bar
A ridge or succession of ridges of sand or other substance, especially a formation extending across the mouth of a river or harbor or off a beach, and which may obstruct navigation. (FM 55-501).
Bar
(heraldry) One of the ordinaries in heraldry; a diminutive of a fess.
Bar
A city gate, in some British place names.
Bar
(mining) A drilling or tamping rod.
Bar
(mining) A vein or dike crossing a lode.
Bar
(architecture) A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
Bar
(farriery) The part of the crust of a horse's hoof which is bent inwards towards the frog at the heel on each side, and extends into the centre of the sole.
Bar
The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
Bar
(slang) A measure of drugs, typically one ounce.
Bar
A non-SI unit of pressure equal to 100,000 pascals, approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Bar
(transitive) To obstruct the passage of (someone or something).
Our way was barred by a huge rockfall.
Bar
(transitive) To prohibit.
I couldn't get into the nightclub because I had been barred.
Bar
(transitive) To lock or bolt with a bar.
Bar the door
Bar
To imprint or paint with bars, to stripe.
Bar
Except, other than, besides.
He invited everyone to his wedding bar his ex-wife.
Bar
(horse racing) Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name.
Leg At Each Corner is at 3/1, Lost My Shirt 5/1, and it's 10/1 bar.
Bar
A piece of wood, metal, or other material, long in proportion to its breadth or thickness, used as a lever and for various other purposes, but especially for a hindrance, obstruction, or fastening; as, the bars of a fence or gate; the bar of a door.
Thou shalt make bars of shittim wood.
Bar
An indefinite quantity of some substance, so shaped as to be long in proportion to its breadth and thickness; as, a bar of gold or of lead; a bar of soap.
Bar
Anything which obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.
Must I new bars to my own joy create?
Bar
A bank of sand, gravel, or other matter, esp. at the mouth of a river or harbor, obstructing navigation.
Bar
Any railing that divides a room, or office, or hall of assembly, in order to reserve a space for those having special privileges; as, the bar of the House of Commons.
Bar
The railing that incloses the place which counsel occupy in courts of justice. Hence, the phrase at the bar of the court signifies in open court.
Bar
Any tribunal; as, the bar of public opinion; the bar of God.
Bar
A barrier or counter, over which liquors and food are passed to customers; hence, the portion of the room behind the counter where liquors for sale are kept.
Bar
An ordinary, like a fess but narrower, occupying only one fifth part of the field.
Bar
A broad shaft, or band, or stripe; as, a bar of light; a bar of color.
Bar
A vertical line across the staff. Bars divide the staff into spaces which represent measures, and are themselves called measures.
Bar
The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
Bar
A drilling or tamping rod.
Bar
A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
Bar
To fasten with a bar; as, to bar a door or gate.
Bar
To restrict or confine, as if by a bar; to hinder; to obstruct; to prevent; to prohibit; as, to bar the entrance of evil; distance bars our intercourse; the statute bars my right; the right is barred by time; a release bars the plaintiff's recovery; - sometimes with up.
He barely looked the idea in the face, and hastened to bar it in its dungeon.
Bar
To except; to exclude by exception.
Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge meBy what we do to-night.
Bar
To cross with one or more stripes or lines.
For the sake of distinguishing the feet more clearly, I have barred them singly.
Bar
A room or establishment where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter;
He drowned his sorrows in whiskey at the bar
Bar
A counter where you can obtain food or drink;
He bought a hot dog and a coke at the bar
Bar
A rigid piece of metal or wood; usually used as a fastening or obstruction or weapon;
There were bars in the windows to prevent escape
Bar
Musical notation for a repeating pattern of musical beats;
The orchestra omitted the last twelve bars of the song
Bar
An obstruction (usually metal) placed at the top of a goal;
It was an excellent kick but the ball hit the bar
Bar
The act of preventing;
There was no bar against leaving
Money was allocated to study the cause and prevention of influenza
Bar
(meteorology) a unit of pressure equal to a million dynes per square centimeter;
Unfortunately some writers have used bar for one dyne per square centimeter
Bar
A submerged (or partly submerged) ridge in a river or along a shore;
The boat ran aground on a submerged bar in the river
Bar
The body of individuals qualified to practice law in a particular jurisdiction;
He was admitted to the bar in New Jersey
Bar
A block of solid substance (such as soap or wax);
A bar of chocolate
Bar
A portable .30 caliber magazine-fed automatic rifle operated by gas pressure; used by United States troops in World War I and in World War II and in the Korean War
Bar
A horizontal rod that serves as a support for gymnasts as they perform exercises
Bar
A heating element in an electric fire;
An electric fire with three bars
Bar
(law) a railing that encloses the part of the courtroom where the judges and lawyers sit and the case is tried;
Spectators were not allowed past the bar
Bar
Prevent from entering; keep out;
He was barred from membership in the club
Bar
Render unsuitable for passage;
Block the way
Barricade the streets
Stop the busy road
Bar
Expel, as if by official decree;
He was banished from his own country
Bar
Secure with, or as if with, bars;
He barred the door
Common Curiosities
Are canteens only found in schools or military bases?
No, canteens can also be found in workplaces, hospitals, and other institutions where there's a need for an on-site dining facility.
Can a place be both a canteen and a bar?
While their primary functions differ, some establishments, especially in community or recreational centers, may serve dual roles, offering food services during the day and operating as a bar in the evening.
How do bars cater to their clientele’s preferences?
Bars often curate their drink menus based on current trends, customer feedback, and the theme of the establishment, sometimes offering specialty drinks or hosting themed nights.
Do bars serve non-alcoholic beverages as well?
Yes, bars also offer a range of non-alcoholic options, including sodas, mocktails, and water, catering to all patrons.
Is it common for canteens to offer table service?
Generally, canteens rely on a self-service model to serve a large number of patrons efficiently, though some may offer table service in specific contexts.
How does the atmosphere of a canteen compare to that of a casual dining restaurant?
Canteens are more functional and often have a cafeteria-like atmosphere, focusing on serving a large number of people quickly, while casual dining restaurants offer a more relaxed dining experience with table service.
What kind of entertainment might you find in a bar?
Entertainment in bars can range from live music and DJs to trivia nights, karaoke, and televised sports events.
What legal requirements must bars meet?
Bars must comply with licensing laws for serving alcohol, health and safety regulations, and local business permits.
Are canteens considered restaurants?
While they offer similar food services, canteens are typically part of another institution and not considered standalone restaurants.
Can anyone open a canteen?
Opening a canteen typically involves partnering with an institution or organization to provide dining services to its members or employees.
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Maham Liaqat
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