"Папа в кафе."

On another post here someone said that it is not, so you would kind of connect it to the next word like "papa vkafe".

normally they pronounce it "v", however in this case it sounds like "f"

I have the same question!

the people are not new to the language that's why they are so good.

I was so excited when I figured out how to pronounce that!

I'd be more worried if dad was in the meat pie.

A cafe is a Coffee shop, and a cafeteria is a restaurant where you choose food from a counter and then pay before you eat it.

In a cafe, you sit at a table and a waitress gives you a menu, then takes your order. Then you sit and wait till she brings you your food. After you finish eating, the waitress is supposed to bring the customers the bill.

In a cafeteria, there is a line of people, who take a tray and go along a line and pick food and put it on their tray. For the hot food, there are servers. The people tell them what they want and the servers put it on a plate and give it to the person, who puts it on his or her tray, then moves on in the line to the desserts and salads and takes what he or she wants and puts it on the tray. At the end is the cashier where people pay for the food on their tray. Then they go to a table and sit down.

Cafeterias as described above can be found in hospitals, YWCA, colleges, schools.

At places like Dairy Queen, A+W, KFC, there is a menu on the wall and people go to the counter and tell the girl what they want. The girl sometimes asks "Is this to stay or to go". A very important question because then they know whether to put it on a paper plate or in a box. The customer pays and then takes the food.

Places like Dairy Queen, etc. are known as "fast food" places.

I've worked in a cafeteria and a cafe and so I know the difference. In both places, I had to wash tables. In a cafe, customers could ask for a book of matches if they wanted to smoke, but not in the cafeteria where I worked. Waitresses get tips but I didn't in the cafeteria, which was in a big hospital.

Another difference is that in the cafeteria, meals are only served during certain hours. For example, supper between 4 and 6:30 PM, whereas you can eat whenever you want in a cafe.

I often think of a cafeteria in a school, hospital or workplace

It's not accepted because it's not a proper English sentence.

As a response to the question "Which father?", "The father in the cafe" (with the article "the") is an appropriate response, but not the first thing that comes to mind. Otherwise, you need the verb "to be" to make this a complete sentence.

Because it's not saying that he is a cafe, only that he is in one. If you were to say "My father is a doctor" then you would use the dash to indicate that he is a doctor. The dash is kind of an indicator of the verb to be but it is not used in the present tense so instead they use a dash. I hoped this helped.

в literally just means "in" - на can also actually translate as "in" in certain contexts, as well. In Russian you typically just don't use the verb "to be" when describing things, even though there are two verbs I can think of that do mean "to be" (есть and являться). Есть is used typically only in the past tense (I was) or future (I will be) and являться is typically higher level/journalist/official speech that's not necessarily used colloquially in every day conversation.

Yes, if you are talking fast

Never, most probably. You have much better chances of having to use a sentence of "<someone> is <somewhere>" type though. And you better be prepared for that ;)

Probably just hasn't been reviewed as a possible answer. Next time you see it use the "suggest an answer" function. The course developers accepted a lot of the things I suggested (especially early on, those darned кажется... sentences).