Check If Model Exists

When searching for what should be a very basic and common test in Laravel, there seems to be much confusion on how to properly check weather or not a model exists and then do something with the model if it does. When searching through stackoverflow, laracasts, and the laravel documentation itself, it does not become anymore clear. If I for example run this query,

$restaurant = Restaurant::find($input["restaurant_id"]);

There are various stack overflow posts that would have me check the count(), use the exists() method which does not seem consistent, or use firstOrFail() which throws an exception. All I want to do is run a call like the one above, check if $restaurant is a valid model, and then do something if it is. There is no need for an exception in my case and I don't want to have to have to run the query again after using something like count() or exists(). The documentation has no useful information on this either which allows 4 different variable types to be returned without any mention of which case will trigger which return. Does anyone have a good handle on this topic?

Laravel checking if record exists

Eloquent ->first() if ->exists()

http://ift.tt/2a8Sm5u

via Chebli Mohamed