Understanding the relationship between food experiential quality and customer dining satisfaction: A perspective on negative bias

•The nonlinear impact of food experiential quality on customer dining satisfaction is proposed.•The moderating role of restaurant price on the impacts of food experiential quality is examined.•A total of 10,950 reviews of 219 restaurants on the Dianping website in China are examined.•Results suggest that low-level food experiential quality weighs more heavily on customer dining satisfaction.•The findings can help restaurant managers maintain a consistent strategy between product and price.