What type of restaurant is an automat?

Answer 1

Automat was considered a waiterless restaurant. What this means is that people would go in to the Automat and get coins from the cashiers that were there then they would insert the coins into a machine which would then dispense the food of their choice, kind of like a vending machine. The only difference is that this machine dispensed hot meals instead of just the typical snacks that are found now in vending machines.