Koze Teppan Grill East

Great food, great service! Atmosphere is fun, lots of tables which is good! You usually don’t have to wait long.
Can’t wait to go back!

I love this place. The staff is nice and the food is amazing. I definitely recommend this place for date nights. The food is a bit pricey but worth every penny.

A family member wanted to post this review, but since I was more involved I thought I should be the one, if anyone, to write about the experience.
I’m hardly on the east side, but when I saw Koze off the freeway I called my family to see if they wanted me to take some sushi back home to the northeast 45 minutes away. We were familiar with the west side location and thought we could hold it to the same standard, but were proved to be wrong. Once I returned home my family noticed a hair in one of the boxes with two sushi rolls. They immediately were turned off-​as anyone would be… I don’t think anyone orders sushi with a side of hair– and told me to go get something else. When I left, I called Koze and asked to speak with the manager to explain the situation. Long story short and after phone calls back and forth I never spoke with the manager and they just agreed to pay me back for one roll. I’m sure the food can be just as good as their west location, but the lack of customer service and basically treating me like I was a liar to protect themselves really pushed me to leave a review. Not everyone in El Paso wants or needs a handout and I was disappointed to be treated that way. I will also post the picture that Koze asked me not to post even when they treated me as a dishonest person.
By the way… I am from El Paso and I want El Paso businesses to succeed. I want this city to grow, but people and customer service has to change and without a better mindset we will never be able to compete with other bigger cities.

This place is amazing. sushi we had was just incredible. .great atmosphere.. Great staff… very courteous. Going back very very soon. love it

The services here is wonderful! The waitress was fast and friendly. She brought our food and it was just delicious! Definitely going to come back here again!

First time trying out Koze East. We showed up around 430pm when it opened for the dinner crowd.
It was just me and my wife, and four others at our grillside table.
The hostess and waitress were quick and attentive.
So no problem with them.
The salad and miso were… strange. Not terrible. Definitely had worse. But the salad did nothing for my tastebuds. So I sent it back.
The soup was a change from not having the normal bits of tofu I have come to expect from other places.
But it was still tasty.
It took about 50 minutes from when we sat down, to have the chef come out.
(Still pretty empty at this point)
I got a 2pc nigri of Yellowtail. Felt like it had been sitting on the counter for a bit. Nothing special.
I also ordered the filet mignon and shrimp.
The filet was cooked perfectly. However, the pepper seasoning was overpowering, and kinda ruined the meat in my opinion. Shrimp were… well… shrimp. Nothing amazing about them.
Wife ordered the Chicken Teriyaki.
She enjoyed her meal. And the White Sauce was the best since she has had since she moved here.
I’ll need to make another trip or two here to try a few more things. But it definitely was not a bad experience for our first time.

I love this place and come here weekly. Food is good and wait staff is attentive. But don’t think you can get a grill seat without a reservation even though the place is empty. On the weekends you definitely need a reservation, obviously, because the place is packed. But I was extremely disappointed to walk in on week night only to hear I would have to wait forty five minutes for a grill seat, even though the place was empty and they acknowledged having two grill chefs on duty. They wouldn’t sit my family and I apparently because they didn’t think they would fill the grill. Profits over patrons, not a good method to keep the latter.

Our waiter was super awesome! Loved his suggestion! Everything is so delicious! My friend had the spicy tuna & voodoo. I had the dragon & Philadelphia. We finished off with raspberry dessert. Yummmm!!!

The food is outstanding, but the service is slow and indifferent. Had the service been mediocre, it may have still deserved an overall 5 stars. Even after the waiter came to give us our bill, he failed to ask once if we needed a drink refill.
We had the ribeye panini and the rainbow roll. Both very good.
Would I come back? Probably not.

Love everything on the menu. Great sushi, great tappen yaki… good drinks. Only thing that I’m not fond of is the price. Since the food is delicious, we will always go back.

The best ever. I truly love sushi and this place has the best ever… on the East Side. I am very picky. Andre is a true Chef and artist. He makes you feel right at home and tends to your every request. He will even tell you the best night for the freshest fish. I have been all over the world eating sushi. This is by far one of the best EVER. Especially for El Paso… There is no better sushi in the city. Trust me!!!

The general décor looks modern… Wood blinds, soft lighting, dark furniture. Nice ambiance.
We decided to just do normal sit-​down dining, no grill for us. It was nearly empty so we were sat immediately. We were craving sushi so went that route versus the big entrees that most reviewers are raving on. Unfortunately things started off on a poor note, food-​wise. Primarily the temperature of the food was off. The miso soup was barely lukewarm and the appetizer after that was warm on the outside but cold on the inside. The rolls we ordered tasted just okay. For the price, I was expecting a little more. Mine was suppose to be spicy but it wasn’t at all. The roll’s presentation looked great though.
The server did their basic duties so the overall service was alright. However, a few days later when the bill posted, the total was wrong (almost $ 5 more). I like to think that the server simply typed in a wrong number and didn’t take advantage of sloppy handwriting because we did in fact originally leave a 20% tip. Either way, it just wasn’t enough to make a big stink over. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe not.
I don’t think I will be back anytime soon.
[The last El Paso Health Dept inspection score posted online at time of review: 70.]

I was hoping for a fun exciting experience as I have been to places like this in the past but let’s say from the first person to the last person this was a bad experience.
First we were quoted 30 minute. Okay no biggie right? Well 30 minutes came and went with no explanation or anything except annoyed looks from the hostess and her talking smack about the large parties already seated. It was about 930 when we were finally sat at a grill alone.
Our waitress was pretty nice. Everything she did was relatively efficient. She seemed very timid but friendly enough. Our soup and salad was out quickly but again it was almost all empty. So I would expect quick service.
Next our ‘chef’ came along about 20 minutes after we were finally seated. Cooked the food quickly, cleaned and left. It was so bad that the only other chef was talking smack to ours. The food was VERY salty. Overly salty to the point i didn’t even like it. It was inedible honestly.
Lastly, when it was time for our check we didn’t see our waitress again until I had a busboy come take the card so we could leave because she was clearly too busy with the other employees talking about customers probably as I had witnessed as soon as I arrived.
The manager came over and said that the hour we waited wasn’t an extraneous amount of time. In what world does a manager say that? None that I know of. Make your customers happy but not once did anyone attempt to make our experience better.
This place has a poor excuse for employees and management. The food was not worth the money. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Find a different teppan grill.

Normally I don’t do this. But I thought it would be appropriate to give this place a third updated review, since tonight was the first time we ever tried their table side dining as opposed to their classic hibachi.
Tonight I ordered the NY strip steak with a lobster tail. This dish is sort of done in a familiar, Americanized type cuisine. Only they offer this thicker than usual sauce on the side which somewhat resembles soy (only more sour) and the choices for side dishes are quite limited and rather unorthodox for this type of plate. Needless to say, I opted for fried rice as my side.
The steak was decent enough. As usual, I ordered mine medium and they nailed the temperature. And whilst the steak could have used more seasoning, it wasn’t bad. It was rather decent actually. Oh, in the photo I uploaded, you’ll notice they top this off with fried onion strings. Ya know, this concept *could* work… only the particular onion strings they used were completely bland and therefore… utterly pointless to even include with the dish. Came off more like a garnish to me. Frankly, if I were making a similar dish at home, I would use French’s fried onion strings… as those come in a can pre-​seasoned.
The lobster tail was decent as well. It was nice and tender, though I find it interesting that the menu describes this tail as being cooked in a garlic butter sauce yet… it tasted like it could have used a little more butter. Again, this concept *could* work… if we weren’t in a Japanese restaurant and they offered a side of melted butter like they do in American restaurants. But I figure at this point I’m just nitpicking.
The ultimate point of this review is to give an update on their table side service, since the menu options change, as you aren’t really getting hibachi. The sushi options are still available. As for the service itself… it was slow. I honestly felt like they only had one waitress to spare for the entire section. Either that, or she was severely tied up with an overly large party elsewhere. Overall… it doesn’t change the rating of this place for me much. Still a fan… who’s also still waiting for a better option for hibachi to turn up somewhere in this otherwise diverse city.

This restaurant has a great selection and is good whether or not you eat a healthy life style. I’ve been eating very healthy the last month and it’s very arduous to eat out healthily. At this place, it’s not difficult at all.
I ordered the Poke Salad with Hawaiian style marinated ahi tuna, a bed of baby spring mix, seaweed salad and fried wonton chips $ 12.00. The quantity is good as is the quality for all meals I’ve had this far. I haven’t had Poke Salad since I’ve parted from Hawaii.
Next was the Grilled Chicken $ 20.00 which was great in a spicy teriyaki sauce.
I also ordered one of the Chef’s Special Rolls. The OMG roll in particular for $ 18.95. It includes whole soft shell crab, spicy tuna, crab mix, fresh tuna, avocado, tobiko & ponzu sauce.
I didn’t have room for dessert this time around not to mention the healthy eating preventing the dessert options. Even the sushi rolls are well portioned. I only wish they had a happy hour of some sort like half off the rolls like Ra does. I believe they’d attract more potential customers and can guarantee more regulars to include myself coming more often. Because $ 19 a roll can be a little steep. Not all of them are that price. I just happened to have a taste for that one.

The only reason I am not giving 5 stars here is I felt the hostess could be a little less cold and more customer service happy! The waitress was polite the drinks were great and the sushi rolls were spectacular! Definitely worth the experience! !!!

Coming here was the best idea we’ve had this week. When we first got there the waiting area was FULL, but not more than ten minutes and we were happily sitting at our take awaiting service. The waiter was fast and very attentive. The atmosphere was fun; we could hear the applauds and laughter coming from the Teppan area, noisy but not annoying. It was busy.
Then the best thing happened. We got our food. Delicious, delightful, tasteful, flavorful, … YUMMY.
We recommend the Playboy roll and Dynamite roll. The latter looks very interesting when it arrives at your table but trust! Is delicious!
We will definitely come back again soon

Ahhh sookie sookie, now! After reading Jason J and Lurine F’s reviews on Koze, I knew we had to get the crew together for dinner and this place did not disappoint. I live on the Westside and we do have a Koze in the neighborhood, but I had never been to it. Now I’m kicking myself in the butt for not checking out either one of these Koze’s sooner.
It’s easy to see from the highway so you won’t miss it at night and it’s a pretty good size. There’s maybe eight teppanyaki grills, a section with just tables, and a bar. Plenty of room and very accommodating to any size party. Since our party was shy of ten people, I called a reservation in ahead. I know they’d still have taken just as good care of had I not made a reservation, but they really went above and beyond. If you do want to be seated at the teppanyaki grill, I’d say call ahead no matter how many people are in your group because those tables filled up fast while we were there.
A few of us waited at the bar until everyone else showed up, but the host allowed us to take a seat at the grill even though our party wasn’t complete yet. Obviously that might not always be an option and probably not the policy, but I appreciate that they made the exception without me asking. Really, everyone we interacted with was just generally awesome.
The table shared calamari tempura, gyoza, a salmon roll, a dragon roll, and a crunchy shrimp roll. The sushi was so yum! I’d go back just for sushi. The prices on the sushi were really good for the area and I didn’t feel like any of them had unnecessary fillers. The appetizers were both under $ 10 each. Great prices again and I loved both of them. The gyoza made me realize that Koze is a little bit more than Japanese food, but more so a fusion of the locals taste and Japanese. The gyoza had melted cheese on top… I’ve never seen that before, but I fricken’ loved it. The calamari tempura was delicious, big pieces of calamari with plenty of veggies. Everything was so dang good.
The steak and shrimp were the go-to’s of the night, but since I had never had swordfish before I decided to go for it. The chef came out and put on the food show that one can expect with a teppanyaki grill. There were lot’s of laughs and some pieces of egg thrown around. As he cooked we had miso soup and a ginger salad. The ginger salad was good, nothing out of the ordinary. The miso soup was very different than what is typically served in EP. Big pieces of mushroom, green onions, and noodles (very similar to a very thin spaghetti). The broth was so tasty. Koze serves some of the best miso soup in the city. I really liked the fried rice which is crazy because I’m normally not a fan. The swordfish was so yummy. Of course teppanyaki grills are a tad pricey, but it was totally worth it. Not fishy in flavor, very meaty, smooth… really good.
By the time everyone was done eating I knew I was way too full for any dessert, but from what I saw… this is the place for some decadent desserts. Sakino T’s tempura ice cream was the best looking I’ve ever seen and Amos S’ cheesecake looked perfect. I definitely will be trying the dessert next time.

As a Japanese person, I gotta say it wasn’t really authentic Japanese type of teppanyaki but I liked it. Huge place and so many seats available. They also have a small bar counter.
The chef was very fun and nice. He will show you tricks on the grill so this place is also good for families with kids.

First time eating here at our first ever Unilocal Elite event… Loved it.
Koze Teppan is a nice, trendy/​modern japanese teppanyaki style restaurant. The décor is legit, location isn’t bad (not hard to find) and the food is great.
We had some sushi rolls and tempura shared by the table. Very good. My wife had the filet mingon and shrimp. The filet was delicious, cooked perfectly. I had ordered the New York steak and chicken, and my chicken was delicious. I also ordered the salmon nigiri (traditional sushi) and loved it. Actually had two orders. Didn’t share it lol. They had bottles of japanese beer, Asahi, Kirin and Sapporro. My wife loves that… She had a Sapporo. The dinners came with fried rice and soup and salad. All were really good.
Desert: get it. I ordered the koze cheesecake and my wife had the tempura ice cream. Both were great! The cheesecake is a normal slice, presented well, and the tempura ice cream is large enough to share! Absolutely recommend it.
Prices are very fair. Pretty much no more and no less than any Teppanyaki style place. Which is of course where your food is cooked at the table in front of you on a late grill. The chef, in normal fashion, put on a show, which included flipping food from the grill into the guests mouth. Everyone nailed it, except me, that took 2 try’s… In my defense the first shot hit my shoulder lol. 2^nd flip, dead on.
It’s a very nice place and a great place to go with friends. Food is good, atmosphere is fun and casual. As with most teppanyaki places, the food for most tables is prepared right in front of you, so understand that when you leave, you’re gonna smell like everything you just ate. So don’t go here if right after eating you’re going to be working alongside others in a confined area. Otherwise… Please check it out. Enjoy. Eat. You’re gonna be full too, so bring an empty stomach… You’ll leave satisfied. Portions are not small. I could go on about it forever, instead I’ll leave you with this… Our table, was only comprised of Unilocal Elites, and we were all satisfied… Das it Mayne