London’s Salt Bae restaurant reported sales of £7 million in its first three months. A flamboyant chef who liberally uses condiments is Salt Bae.
Nurs-Et Steakhouse, the establishment at the Park Tower hotel in Knightsbridge famous for exorbitantly priced items like tomahawk steaks wrapped in gold, also made pre-tax profits of £2.3m in the year to December, despite only opening its doors in late September, according to accounts submitted to Companies House and first reported by The National. The Turkish conglomerate Douş Group’s restaurant “performed greater than the projected results,” notwithstanding the effect the Omicron variety of Covid-19 had on the UK hospitality industry at the end of the previous year, according to the firm.
Given that a photo of a £1,812.40 receipt for a table of six, which featured £1.40 cans of Red Bull at $11, went viral soon after the London branch’s debut, the results shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Salt Bae’s restaurant in London, which Observer critic Jay Rayner called a “ludicrous restaurant,” charges more than £600 for a big tomahawk steak and £40 for a burger, with some herb-crusted fries being the least costly item on the menu. The chain is reportedly a favorite of David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The chance to meet Salt Bae, the Turkish butcher turned steak-monger Nusret Gökçe, who founded the restaurant and has amassed more than 40 million Instagram followers since a video of him performing an elaborate steak-salting manoeuvre while donning a tight white T-shirt and dark glasses went viral, is one factor that attracts customers to the restaurant. Even though the group is advertising waitress jobs paying more than £15 an hour plus tips, a plate of baklava at the restaurant still costs less than that amount.
Douş founded its first Nusr-Et restaurant in Turkey in 2010, and today there are more than 20 of them. The company also owns the Cafe di Dolce dessert shop and the Saltbae hamburger restaurant.
