By: Krystina de Alba

Most people would say that Pensacola Florida’s statement piece is our beach. The one thing that goes hand in hand with the beach is seafood. Having good seafood in our area allows restaurants to have food such as sushi. Sake Cafe and Ichiban are two popular and local Japanese restaurants in the area. Likewise, both have family friendly tones to them. Ichiban serves more of a traditional Japanese style, they specialize in mainly sushi. This place is located near Brent of Pensacola and has two separate locations. While on the other hand, Sake Cafe serves more of a broad Japanese style like hibachi. Sake Cafe is also located near Brent and only has one location. I have been looking at both restaurants to see what they have to offer and have found things that can be comparable within both establishments. This research will compare and contrast the following things that I think are crucial to having a successful restaurant: price, presentation, and the variety of a menu. After considering the criteria of both restaurants, I discovered that Ichiban is the better establishment for a comfortable dining experience while Sake Cafe is best for a tense experience.

When talking about prices, we can clearly see the difference between each other. Prices should be affordable for the people in our local area. Sake Cafe offers an All You Can Eat Sushi that starts at $35 per person, but you have a 90-minute time limit and if you leave over any pieces, you will be charged for each one. If you want to dine for lunch or dinner, it can be around

$25 per person. In spite of the fact that Ichiban does not have an All You Can Eat option, this

restaurant has more options that are definitely cheaper. Ichiban’s main location has lunch and dinner that costs around $20 per person. Both restaurants do provide discounted prices during certain hours and days. When comparing the two prices, Ichiban would be the cheapest route by about 10 or 15 dollars. As we can see, the best pricing for our social class within our area, middle class, is Ichiban. This restaurant supplies a good amount of food for their prices and is the best deal for most of the locals.

Presentation is an especially vital component when talking about food. Presentation can be from what the outside of the building looks like so it can be inviting new customers. Also, the presentation of what the food looks like, so it will keep the customers coming back. When we talk about food, both Ichiban and Sake Cafe are pretty much the same when it comes to that.

Both provide a nice and clean dish. Ichiban is a part of a shopping center that has a pizza place, video game store, and a gym. The outside of the building is casual, and ordinary compared to other restaurants around the area. In contrast, Sake Cafe seems to be isolated where the only buildings besides it are some orthodontic offices. Their building seems as if you would drive by and not notice it is a restaurant. It blends in as it could possibly be just another office. As we compare them both, Ichiban’s appearance seems to slightly take the upper hand. In closing, the preferable presentation for our locals within the area would be Ichiban. The restaurant gives a casual atmosphere while Sake Cafe presents a discreet ambience.

The menu of a restaurant should accommodate most or all of their customers. Restaurants should have a variety of different food choices to satisfy people that come in, such as vegans and vegetarians. Both Ichiban and Sake Cafe have comparable menus. These two restaurants serve sushi, soups and salads, and bento boxes. Although, just by looking at the menu it appears that both have a handful of options for other demographics. Ichiban has food options such as Veggie

Sushi plates and others with simply several types of vegetables. Sake Cafe has an option for a Create Your Own Roll. With that option, it would allow for customers to make different combinations of their tastes. This restaurant also has meals on their menu that contain tofu within them. When looking at both options, Ichiban succeeds a little bit more by having a few more entrees that accommodate others than Sake Cafe. In all, Ichiban has slightly better variations of food on their menu to satisfy different customers.

To sum it up, Ichiban is the best restaurant if you are looking for a home-like dining experience. When basing the criteria of prices, presentation, and menu variations. All these subjects are what makes a restaurant affordable for our area, allows new customers to be invited in and customers to keep coming in, and should cater towards other demographics. By supporting this local restaurant or many others, you are providing these businesses with the opportunity to further their restaurant. In addition, we can be able to highlight these restaurants so other people in our community can pay a visit to these establishments.