Turkish celebrity chef and millionaire Nusret Gökçe, widely known as Salt Bae, is facing an angry backlash after sharing a customer’s eye-watering six-figure bill.
The mystery diners spent an astonishing 615,065 dirham (£140, 584) at the Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Abu Dhabi, including £1,255 on two golden Ottoman steaks, £1,027 for two beef tenderloin, and £891 for 11 beef fillet steaks.
More than half the bill was spent on Petrus wine - including two bottles of Petrus 2009 Louis XIII costing 200,000 dirham, or £45,661 - and five bottles of Petrus red at 325,000 dirham or £74,413.
One bottle of Chateau Margaux cost 15,500 dirham or more than £3,500.
They also spent lavishly on simple items, including £41 for fries, £12 for a Heineken and £92 on nine still waters.
Gökçe posted the shockingly expensive bill on Instagram to his 49 million followers, with the caption: “Quality never expensive”.
The chef is known for charging outlandish prices for various meats covered in gold-leaf, but this appeared to be a step too far for many of his online followers.
One person commented: “This is lame, that amount of money will help a whole village from dying. This is horrible.”
Another wrote: “This is disgusting to flaunt especially with the emergence of a global cost of living crisis.”
A third said: “Call me crazy but this just seems like the definition of a ‘waste of money’.”
Others claimed that food at the Nusr-Et Steakhouse restaurants is of poor quality. He opened a branch in Knightsbridge in 2021 but the restaurant has been hit by a stream of bad reviews. However, it still made £7 million in sales in its first four months.
Despite Salt Bae being synonymous with the Nusr-Et restaurants, he’s not listed as a director for Nusret UK, the company that has reported making £7 million, which is registered at Turkish conglomerate group Dogus International Limited’s London address.
The steakhouse was reviewed last year by Evening Standard restaurant reviewer Jimi Famurewa who said it was “a bad restaurant”, going on to describe it as “a vibeless business lounge of a room where mostly amateurish Frankie & Benny’s-level food is served at insultingly high prices.”
The Turkish social media sensation has also come under fire for allegedly paying his chefs just £12 an hour—the same price Nusr-Et sells corn on the cob for.
Gökçe’s steak-slicing and salt-sprinkling antics propelled him to fame in 2017 and made him an Instagram sensation - he has 49 million followers on the social media platform.
Nusr-Et fans include David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Naomi Campbell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Snoop Dogg, P Diddy, and Drake, who have all been spotted at his restaurants.
