Kobe Teppan & Sushi

THE WORST TEPPAN DINING EVER. I have dined at least seven different teppan table restaurants in Southern California. Kobe Japanese Steakhouse is the worst. The California roll appetizer was good, but it was all downhill from there. The soup was a heavy beef broth soup with two mushrooms in it. I would have preferred a good miso. The salad was served with a watery Thousand Island dressing. I ordered filet mignon with scallops served with a side of three shrimp. The shrimp was okay but overly seasoned. The filet mignon was tasteless, and the scallops were mushy. The two sauces served with the meats were bland and uninspired. The biggest disappointments were the fried rice, which had an oily taste, and the vegetables that were comprised primarily of undercooked zucchini, very few mushrooms and onions, and not nearly enough bean sprouts. The cost for all this for a party of six with no alcoholic drinks -- $217. This was clearly poor but expensive food.

This restaurant was a big disappointment to me because we were celebrating my son's birthday. Teppan table dining has been a tradition in our family for birthdays. We usually go to Matsu's in Huntington Beach, but my son moved to Irvine, and it was his birthday so we tried Kobe's. What a mistake!

I guess it should have been a clue when we walked into the place at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening and it was practically empty. From now on I will not stray from Matsu's in H.B. or the less formal Sagami Tei's in Fountain Valley.…