Purpose – This study aims to identify the relationship between individual differences of customers and their intention to use Near Field Communication (NFC)-based mobile payment (MP) technology in restaurants. Design/methodology/approach – Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) was used to collect the data of this study. A brief demonstration video of a NFC-MP system on how to use the technology was included at the beginning of the survey to make sure that all respondents had a sufficient understanding of the technology. A total of 410 valid online questionnaires were collected. ANOVA with Dunnett’s C post hoc analysis was used to compare the groups’ mean differences of gender, age, prior experience, income and education. Findings – The findings indicated that there are significant differences in customers’ intention to use NFC technology in restaurants for past experience, age and gender. However, unlike previous studies’ statements, education and income did not play a significant role in restaurant customers’ NFC MP adoption behavioral intention. Research limitations/implications – This study investigated the restaurant customers’ NFC “intention to use” and did not observe the restaurant consumers’ actual behavior. A longitudinal study measuring actual behavior would be more beneficial to support the result of this study. Likewise, this study did not include the potential differences that might exist between various restaurant segments and ownerships (e.g. franchise vs chain or fast food vs fine dining). Accordingly, future studies should take this factor into account and replicate the study to detect any potential differences in restaurant customers’ behavioral intention. Practical implications – Segmenting the market according to customers’ demographics could be a competitive advantage for the company. Based on the findings of this study, technology vendors and restaurant operators can define and design more effective strategies that are compatible with various market segments to increase the adoption of NFC-MP technology. Originality/value – Food and travel experts believe that mobile payment will soon become the preferred method of payment in near future. Moreover, many restaurants in the USA are currently utilizing NFC-based MP systems because of its benefits. However, recent market research shows that NFC-based MP is still not popular among restaurant customers, as its rate of adoption is low. As little research has been conducted on MP in general and on consumers’ NFC-based MP adoption behavior in particular, a better understanding of individual differences influencing the adoption of mobile payments should be acquired.