An automat is a fast-food restaurant where food and drink are served through a vending machine, typically without waitstaff. The world's first automat, Quisisana, opened in Berlin, Germany, in 1895.

The first documented automat was Quisisana, which opened in 1895 in Berlin, Germany. In 1904, a similar restaurant opened in what was then Breslau, German Silesia (the city is now Wrocław, Polish Silesia).

In Japan, in addition to vending machines that sell prepared food, many restaurants also use food ticket machines (Japanese: 食券機, romanized: shokkenki). This process involves purchasing a meal ticket from a vending machine, which is then presented to a server who prepares and serves the meal.

Kaitenzushi restaurants, which serve sushi on conveyor belts, are also common in Japan.

Automats (Dutch: automatiek) provide a variety of typical Dutch fried fast food, such as frikandellen and croquettes, as well as hamburgers and sandwiches from vending machines which are back-loaded from a kitchen.

FEBO is the best-known chain of Dutch automats, with some outlets open 24 hours a day.

The first automat in the United States was opened by food services company Horn & Hardart on June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Inspired by Max Sielaff's automat restaurants in Berlin, they were among the first forty-seven restaurants (and the first outside of Europe) to receive patented vending machines from Sielaff's Berlin factory. The automat expanded to New York City in 1912, and gradually became part of popular culture in northern industrial cities.

Originally, the machines in US automats only accepted nickels. A cashier sat in a change booth in the center of the restaurant behind a wide marble counter with five to eight rounded depressions. The diner would insert the required number of coins in a machine and then lift a window, hinged at the top, and remove the meal, which was usually wrapped in waxed paper. The kitchen was located behind the machines to replenish food from the rear.