Koze — Restaurant in El Paso

This is for dining room, not grill. Been here previously and had the hibachi grill experience which was great. Did the dining room as it was 30 plus minutes before they were doing another grill table. Server was great, however the food quality was not up to par with the quality at the grill. Will not be doing the dining option again.

Edited: Attempted to do hibachi again tonight with the family. Upon ordering we informed them as we have previously of the shellfish allergy so they would cook the other two guests shrimp after the rest of the food. The waitress told us she had to check with the chef to see if he would be “willing” to accommodate our allergy. We told her it had never been an issue but if they wouldn’t we wouldn’t be dining at their establishment as the whole experience is why we go. A few minutes later another woman came over and told us that the chef suggested cooking our food in the back and bringing it out to us. (Once again the whole reason we go to hibachi places is to experience our meal in front of us.) We let her know that we have never had an issue with the chef cooking the shrimp last, nor did the other two people at our table have an issue with this. She then said that what she had suggested was the chefs suggestion and she would ask him again. We once again reiterated we were there for the grill and would leave if they weren’t willing to cook shrimp last. Another five minutes goes by and this woman comes back out and says that the chef has to use the whole grill and will not accommodate our allergy. We told her that was fine and we will be leaving. As we were leaving she tried to tell us it was their policy to not serve allergy on the grill (mind you this is the third “excuse” we have been given and we have eaten at this exact location many times over the last 4 years without an issue). I told her it wasn’t policy as we have eaten there before and they had given us several other reasons why they didn’t want to cook our food at the grill. We have had their food as a dine option not from the grill and it was NOT good. We left feeling several things…1) the chef was being lazy and didn’t want to take a few extra minutes to separate food and 2) the staff will say whatever they want and their “policies” are not consistent. 3) they didn’t think we would actually leave without eating. We are very disappointed in the different stories we were fed, inconsistencies in coming to this location and will not be back.

Word to anyone who might have an allergy, if the chef doesn’t feel like working you won’t get your food...

Came to Koze for the first time last week with my husband and his parents who were in town for the evening! My husband is a fan of hibachi style cuisine so we looked up a spot near our home and Koze was the first to pop up! They also had good reviews so we were all for it.

When we first arrived the hostess asked if we wanted to be seated at the grill (for show) or the dining room. Since my husband does like watching the cook do his thing, we opted to wait the 15-20 minutes for a grill to become available. Next time we will definitely make note to call ahead and make a reservation though!

Once we were seated we looked over the menu to see our options. I will say that the service at Koze was a bit lacking. Our waitress took quite a while to come around for our drink order, main course and then at the end of the evening for us to pay our bill. I’m not sure if she was serving a lot of other tables for the night but that was just our experience. It would have been nice if she came around more so we weren’t looking for her.

My husbands parents got the shrimp and scallop meal to split, my husband ordered the chicken and scallops. I, however, decided to try their sushi - so I got the California roll and the BBQ salmon roll.

Once the chef came around to start cooking (which took quite a while) he started the show. I will also note that there was a bit of a language barrier between us and the chef. He tried asking us questions, such as if we were celebrating a birthday, but it was very hard for us to understand what he was saying. We could also tell he was a bit new at the job because certain “tricks” he’d mess up on or had to try a couple times before he got it right.

For the food, I will say that I did enjoy my sushi. Both rolls were delicious! My husband ate mostly the protein on his plate. They give a huge portion of fried rice for the main courses, it’s definitely enough for two people. I believe his parents said they thought the meal was good as well.

I think it came down to the service we received which kind of left a bad impression. The food was good it was just the lack of service that left me wanting more. I know there are other hibachi restaurants in El Paso. I will probably try those with my husband. I wouldn’t mind coming back to Koze, I understand maybe they were just having a bad day. But I would also try...

Let me start off by saying this is not a bad review about the food as the food was great and the service was good too. The problem I have with this place which is going to make me stop going there is the way they handle their gratuity. Its always been an issue where if you sit on the teppan grill they charge you gratuity automatically even if you are a party of 2 people but you sat with strangers. They have told us well there was a party of 8, but we tell them yeah but it was just 2 of us. Typically we've been able to get them to remove the auto-gratuity because they than say its how their computer system just automatically does it, which is BS. Other excuses we have gotten is because it was a special day like mothers day or valentines day that they automatically charge gratuity for those days. Okay fine we accepted that and make sure we don't go on those type of days anymore. Today though wasn't one of those days, they sat us with another group and charged us 20% gratuity. They wouldn't remove as they say they auto charge it with parties of 4 or more, which is crazy as I've never heard of it under 6 or more. So basically if you have a family of 4 get ready to be charged 20% gratuity automatically. Tipping is supposed to be based on service, what happens if you get horrible service but still get auto-charged 20% that's wrong. Luckily on this day the service wasn't bad so didn't have a complaint there but still because of these continued practices, I can no longer give this establishment my business which is a shame as the food is always good. I should have done what other guests did, we both ended up tipping the chef cash but when we found out about this auto 20%, he made sure to get his tip back from the chef (as they say the tip on the check is split with the chef). Again food is great and if you don't mind getting auto charged 20% gratuity than by all means give this place your business but I no...