What is the difference between 食堂 , レストラン, 料理店, 料理屋 and 飲食店?


What is the difference between

食堂

レストラン

料理店

料理屋

飲食店




  * **食堂** : A dining hall, a (large) dining room (of a mansion/hotel), a cafeteria (of an office/school), a cheap restaurant (which one may go to every day). Cheap restaurants are also called 大衆食堂 ([image search](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E5%A4%A7%E8%A1%86%E9%A3%9F%E5%A0%82)). American diners are often introduced as アメリカの大衆食堂.
  * **レストラン** : Typically, unless otherwise specified, a Western-style restaurant that serves Western food. レストラン at least have waiters, and fast food restaurants are usually not considered レストラン. Some レストラン are very expensive, but ファミリーレストラン ([image search](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%9F%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B9), ファミレス for short) are relatively casual and often serve Japanese food as well as Western food. In anime, you can often see high school students gathering at a ファミレス.
  * **料理店** : Small restaurants that offer traditional cuisine at a relatively high price point tend to be called 料理店. If we just say 料理店, it refers to Japanese restaurants, but there are also インド料理店, メキシコ料理店, etc. A (日本)料理店 ([image search](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%96%99%E7%90%86%E5%BA%97)) is not very different from izakaya, but 料理店 sounds more quiet and expensive to me (if not as expensive as [料亭](https://savorjapan.com/contents/discover-oishii-japan/ryotei-and-kappo-restaurants-even-japanese-would-struggle-to-differentiate-and-where-to-find-them/)). 料理屋 is a synonym that sounds relatively informal. In particular, 小料理屋 ([image search](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?p=%E5%B0%8F%E6%96%99%E7%90%86%E5%B1%8B)) typically refers to tiny izakaya-type restaurants that are privately owned and only have counter seats.
  * **飲食店** : A catch-all term for everything above as well as bars, café, fast food restaurants, bubble tea shops, etc. This is more of a business/legal term. We see it a lot in news articles (especially during this COVID crisis), but ordinary people don't need to use it often in everyday conversation.

