What is Kauboi?
The name tells you the idea: “Kauboi” is “cowboy” spelled as if it were Japanese. Kauboi is a Japanese steakhouse that leans on Western imagery. The main dining room is leather, wood and stone, the sushi rolls are named for the Arizona desert, and the kitchen is built around a custom robata and grill suite that does two things at once. One side cooks charcoal yakitori. The other cooks Santa Maria-style steaks over live fire, in the style of California’s ranch barbecue.
It opened in July 2025 as the main restaurant of The REMI., the 12-story hotel the Yari family built at the corner of Buckboard Trail and Indian Plaza. The hotel’s food and drink program was curated by Alliance Hospitality Group, the team behind Scottsdale’s Sexy Roman and Los Angeles’ Baltaire, with help from Riot Hospitality Group, which runs the venues. Executive chef Nick Foegal opened the kitchen with a menu of sushi, small plates and wood-fired entrées meant for sharing.
The opening signatures were built to be watched. The smoking bluefin tuna arrives at the table steaming in a donabe pot. The Kauboi Cut, a 40-ounce bone-in tomahawk ribeye, is flamed and carved tableside. The bar opened with drinks like the Shishito Sour and a Miso Mango Boulevardier and a selection of Japanese whiskies. Outside, the Kauboi Terrace, 9,575 square feet with cabanas, its own bar and a two-sided fireplace, overlooks the pool at Maya Day + Night.
It is the most expensive and most ambitious dinner in the entertainment district, and in 2026 Sunset magazine’s travel awards listed it for destination dining.
Ordering at a steakhouse built for groups
Start small. The cold side of the menu is the best value here. Order the Japanese milk toast, baked fresh daily and served with miso butter and honey, then the smoking tuna and the wagyu steak tartare. The K.F.C., Kauboi fried chicken with umami ranch, is the crowd-pleaser.
Use the grill both ways. Order a few charcoal-grilled yakitori skewers, which are priced by the skewer, and then decide on steak. The menu runs from a 10-ounce filet and wagyu skirt and top cap up to bone-in strips, a porterhouse, a Japanese A5 strip and a global wagyu tasting that compares olive-fed, chocolate-fed and A5 beef. The Kauboi Cut is for a group. Two people can share a strip and order more sides.
Try the Arizona rolls. The sushi list is where the Western theme is most fun. The Camelback Cactus Roll has salmon, grilled nopal, charred corn and Tajín. The Desert Heat has spicy tuna and roasted poblano, and the Saguaro has soft-shell crab and habanero ponzu. The Tombstone Roll of A5 wagyu, chu-toro, caviar and gold leaf is the splurge. For a group, the Kau-Bōto is a large board of nigiri, sashimi and signature rolls. Get the wagyu fried rice in its clay pot for the table, and the jumbo crab elote if you want something Southwestern.
Plan the evening. Dinner starts at 5 p.m. Late on weekends the whiskey bar does bottle service, and a 20% gratuity applies to parties of six or more. The REMI.’s dress code applies to the whole building, so men need collared shirts and closed-toed shoes, and caps, athleisure and slides are not allowed. Brunch is a set-price menu at $75 a person, with sushi and mimosa boats extra. The hotel only has valet parking, so take a rideshare. Afterward, Maya is next door and Whiskey Row is around the corner.
A steakhouse for the upscale district
Kauboi fits the version of Old Town that its owners are building now. For two decades the entertainment district’s food was mostly fuel: tacos at El Hefe, pizza at Bottled Blonde, fried chicken at Whiskey Row. Serious steak and sushi dinners were elsewhere, at Maple & Ash by Fashion Square or Sushi Roku in the W. The REMI. was planned to keep guests inside the Yaris’ buildings from dinner until closing, and Kauboi is the dinner part of that plan.
The concept follows a national trend toward theatrical Japanese steakhouses with wagyu menus and tableside flames. What makes it local is the Western theme. Scottsdale has spent seventy years selling itself as the West’s Most Western Town, and a restaurant on Buckboard Trail, a street with a wagon’s name, putting nopal in its sushi and naming rolls after Tombstone and Camelback is following that tradition. The Santa Maria grill takes its name from California ranch barbecue rather than Japan, which gives the robata a cattle-country partner.
Its location shows how the district is changing. In the mid-2020s, operators and the city described a push toward a more upscale Old Town, through rebuilt clubs, dress codes and new hotels. The 2020s district shows up here in an Autograph Collection lobby, a menu with A5 wagyu, and a terrace where diners can watch the pool party at Maya from their cabanas.
Honest assessment: Kauboi is expensive and built for groups, and a strict dress code means there is nothing casual about the visit. The kitchen is better than the setting suggests, though. The milk toast, the yakitori and the Arizona rolls are worth the trip, and it is the first restaurant in the entertainment district that you would book for the food alone.