Purpose Despite the growing trend for single-dish restaurants in the Philippines, understanding customer loyalty for this subsector is scarce in the current literature. To address such a gap, this paper aims to identify attributes and their sub-attributes that contribute to customer loyalty for single-dish restaurants. Design/methodology/approach Using the analytic hierarchy process, the priorities of these attributes in achieving customer loyalty were generated from a group of expert decision-makers. A representative case study in the Philippines with an emerging market trend for single-dish restaurants was conducted. Findings Findings show that “value” is the most crucial attribute in achieving customer loyalty, followed by “food” and “service” attributes, which are straightforward implications of single-dish restaurants. More strikingly, the “atmosphere” attribute ranks last in the priority list, which may mean that customers consider fancy environments with less priority when dining in these types of restaurants. In the priority sub-attributes, “dining experience” and “tastiness” came up on top of the list, with the “music” attribute ranking last. These findings are crucial inputs to inform the design of strategies that would enhance the customer base. Originality/value This study reports the first attempt to rigorously analyze single-dish restaurants, which gain little attention in the current literature, yet an emerging type of restaurant, especially in developing economies. With significant differences in many aspects of mainstream restaurants, customer loyalty attributes may be different. This paper determines the list of priority attributes and sub-attributes of customer loyalty for Philippine single-dish restaurants. Identifying these priority attributes contributes to the extant literature by offering valuable insights for relevant decision-makers in gaining competitive advantage within their market niches.