Institutional foodservice is a type of meal provided to workers in industry and affects the health and psychological wellbeing of workers and productivity. Thus, research on customer satisfaction with institutional foodservice is important. In addition to food industry and food culture developments, the requirements of institutional foodservice customers are diversifying due to COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect customer satisfaction with institutional foodservice using a user-based approach. In this study, the quality of institutional foodservice was defined using customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and by using in-depth interview and open coding (a qualitative research method), we derived qualities of institutional foodservice from the user’s perspective and compared these with those of previous studies. This study is meaningful as the quality of institutional foodservice was analyzed using a user-based approach, in-depth interview, and open coding and compares results with those of previous studies.