Foodservice establishments must place a high priority on understanding the growing markets resulting from rapid urbanization and rising numbers of tourists. This industry has a huge impact on the economy but significantly affected by customers’ ever-changing preferences. Managers need to gain and sustain strategic advantage in this highly competitive industry, thus a local customer preference assessment is crucial. This paper presented the dimensions of customer preference in the Malaysian food service industry, tested empirically for unidimensionality, reliability and validity using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. A 30-item questionnaire was designed and distributed to 1000 foodservice customers, yielding a response rate of 64.2%. Factorial analysis confirmed five dimensions of customer preference, and using multiple regression, their order of importance are Halal (permissible in Islam), Price, Quality of Service, Branding and Tangibles. All the five dimensions have positive correlation with customer satisfaction, which in turn correlates highly with customer loyalty. Hence, a framework of success is proposed as the guidelines for practitioners and authorities in enhancing the success of the foodservice industry.