mess_hall has definitions from the fields of military,housing
1
[ noun ] (military,housing) a (large) military dining room where service personnel eat or relax

Synonyms

mess

Used in print

(Marvin Schiller, "The Sheep's in the Meadow,"...)

But that year was different , for just as the city , in the form of my street clothes , had intruded upon my mountain nights , so an essential part of the summer gave promise of continuing into the fall : Jessica and I , about to be separated not by a mere footbridge or mess-hall kitchen but by the immense obstacle of residing in cruelly distant boroughs , had agreed to correspond .

*