Salt Bae is leaving his London restaurant amid criticism over extremely high prices.
The popular Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, widely-known as Salt Bae, is leaving his London steakhouse. As reported by Unilad, he is headed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the launch of the newest restaurant under the Nusr-et name.
The celebrity chef announced his decision to walk out of his Knightsbridge steakhouse over social media. On his Instagram Stories, Salt Bae said:
“Sunday is my last day in London. I will go to Riyadh to open my 28th restaurant. Sunday is my last day in Lovely London. I want to see you beautiful people before I go.”
Salt bae opened his London restaurant “at the heart of the world” on September 23.
It has been less than two months after Nusr-et opened its doors, but it has already been visited by stars, such as Naomi Campbell and David Beckham. However, it has also faced massive criticism over its prices.
Previously, guests of the restaurant have shared their bills, showing jaw-dropping menu prices, such as £11($15) for a RedBull, £100($135) for a burger, and £1,450($2,000) for a steak. Outraged at the unbelievable menu items’ values, some people shared online they prefer to have a takeaway kebab outside the restaurant instead of spending a fortune inside.
Meanwhile, the steakhouse advertised a vacancy for a chef with an hourly wage of only £12-£13.50.
As Unilad notes, this is barely above the London Living Wage.
People are also accusing the celebrity chef of abandoning his UK location. One food critic commented:
“Without a cult of personality to sustain it, Nusr-Et will collapse pretty quickly won’t it. Who will pay ridiculous amounts of money to watch an understudy, when they only wanted tickets to see the Hollywood star.”
