餐厅 -- cāntīng -- Canteen?
Hi all; in a dialogue in Mandarin, the restaurant is called 快乐餐厅 -- kuàilè cāntīng -- "Happy Restaurant".

Now, 餐 [ cān ] means "food / eating food" -- but "Canteen" in English can indicate a restaurant as well.

So what is 餐厅 [ cāntīng ] ? a Mandarin word, an English word; or a coincidence of both (not unusual in Chinese loan words?)

Question

餐厅 -- cāntīng -- Canteen?
Hi all; in a dialogue in Mandarin, the restaurant is called 快乐餐厅 -- kuàilè cāntīng -- "Happy Restaurant".

Now, 餐 [ cān ] means "food / eating food" -- but "Canteen" in English can indicate a restaurant as well.

So what is 餐厅 [ cāntīng ] ? a Mandarin word, an English word; or a coincidence of both (not unusual in Chinese loan words?)

Answer

it is just a coincidence, actually there are plenty of such phonetic similarities between English and Mandarin.
I found a few from https://www.zhihu.com/question/31154552    (知乎)

shout和“啸”
bowl 和古汉语的“钵”
bake和古汉语“焙” 
pour“泼” 
cough“咳” 
cheat“欺” 
easy古汉语“易”
song古汉语“颂”
seal古汉语“”玺”
tear和“涕”
torrent和“湍流”的“湍”

lost和“落 ”la 四声
ear“耳”
near古汉语“迩”
dawn古汉语“旦”
fan古汉语“樊篱”的“樊”
tower和“塔
town和“屯” 
wash和“洗”
离leave
石头stone
drag 拽    
tow 拖  
pat 拍  
fee 费 
give 给 
peel 皮 
pan 盘

作者：小火马
链接：https://www.zhihu.com/question/31154552/answer/50831135
来源：知乎

Answer

it is just a coincidence. 
Literally, “餐” means food, meal. “厅” means hall. “餐厅” means a place for eating.

Answer

i think Jiyuan is right. 餐厅 is a exotic vocabulary. in Mandarin we alway say : 餐馆/饭店/餐厅/酒楼, those are same meaning. don't worry, you can pick it up and use it in life time.

Answer

I think it‘s a coincidence，餐厅  literally means dining hall

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!