Of all the major sectors of travel and tourism, restaurant PR requires some of the most specialized knowledge and language. This, and the fact that nearly half of all new restaurants fail in their first few years and the viability of a restaurant is heavily dependent on the critical reviews it receives, present unique high- risk challenges for the PR practitioner.

In the hotel sector, restaurants are often a necessary amenity but they seldom are big revenue producers. Rarely will you find a hotel restaurant supported by a dedicated restaurant PR practitioner. Instead, an outside PR consultant or agency will most likely be employed. The latter type of PR support is very common for individual, free-standing restaurants especially for the purposes of creating an initial "buzz" or word-of-mouth popularity during a restaurant's first few months of operation.

Different classes of restaurants have different PR audiences, tools, and messages. For example, fast-food chain restaurants have very large, geographically dispersed operations in terms of employees and corporate structure. With greater employee numbers, the chains use the traditional communication tools such as online and printed newsletters, individual recognition programs, and webcasts.