The Dark Side Of Salt Bae's Steak Empire

If there's one thing history has taught us, it's that empires have an expiration date, and no exception was made for the once-reigning King of Steak: Salt Bae. The pencil-moustache-sporting Turkish culinary superstar rose to international fame in 2017 after a video of his distinctively affected, theatrical manner of salting steak became a ubiquitous meme and GIF. One viral moment took his steakhouses worldwide and propelled him to red carpets, film festivals, and elite sporting events. Yet the lavish restaurant chain that brought its founder incredible wealth has also been dogged by complaints, stinging criticism, closures, and lawsuits.

Salt Bae, 43, whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, cut his teeth as a teenage butcher's apprentice in Istanbul. He toiled away for years before opening his first restaurant, Nusr-Et, in the Turkish metropolis in 2010, and a second establishment in Dubai four years later. When the January 2017 video originally posted on Instagram racked up millions of views and consolidated itself as one of the most memorable pop culture moments of the 2010s, Nusr-Et expanded to handle the aftermath of viral success.

Gökçe went from running a restaurant with 10 tables and as many employees to heading a multicontinental chain where diners flocked to eat steak and maybe witness the man behind it all perform his famous salting gesture. This overnight success came with significant opprobrium to match, exposing a darker truth behind the Turkish restaurateur's empire.

At the forefront of the criticisms of Nusret Gökçe's businesses are the obscene menu prices. Almost as viral as the original Salt Bae video are snaps of outlandish receipts from dinners at his steakhouses. The London locale attracted scathing attention in 2021 after the press went to town on a bill from the newly opened location that totaled £37,023 ($48,894). Critics questioned the validity of the extravagantly expensive items, including a £1,450 ($1,916) gold-covered tomahawk. A 2025 TripAdvisor review of Nusr-Et London reads, "The food was shockingly mediocre. The steak — allegedly the centerpiece of the menu — was overcooked, poorly seasoned, and lacking in flavor or finesse."

Gökçe leans heavily into luxury and spectacle as an aesthetic, so diners don't just pay for purportedly premium food, but a theatrical, celebrity-adjacent, larger-than-life experience. The formula wasn't entirely without success — the London restaurant's financial statements reported over £7 million ($9.3 million) in revenue within its first three months of opening. 

Some critics have been generous to the Turkish restaurateur. Pete Wells of The New York Times described the steak as "terrific" and the mashed potatoes as "awful" back in 2018 when Nusr-Et opened in the Big Apple. Others have taken less kindly to the dining experience. Numerous write-ups scoffed at the high bills, lackluster side dishes, and hard, chewy steaks. The London restaurant was (unsurprisingly) no less spared. The British outpost's current TripAdvisor score is a 2.9 out of 5, with "Terrible" as the most-selected rating.

Diners are typically none-the-wiser about what goes on behind the scenes at restaurants, but for Salt Bae, it seemed to be the heart of many issues. The controversies are more serious than the exorbitant steak prices. As Salt Bae's fame grew, reports and even lawsuits from employees claiming to have been mistreated and left without a paycheck began coming to light.

In 2019, four former servers at Nusr-Et steakhouse in New York sued Salt Bae, claiming they were fired after questioning how management divided pooled tips to waitstaff. The case was settled for $230,000. That same year, another server accused Nusr-Et New York of tip-skimming and violating overtime and minimum wage labor laws, filing a class action suit that resulted in a $300,000 settlement the following year. To add insult to injury, suits emerged in 2021 alleging discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, and sexuality. The artist behind the famous Salt Bae portrait seen around his restaurants also sued Nusret Gökçe in 2021 for using the artwork on promotional materials without consent. Most of the suits have been settled out of court. 

The justice system has not tilted entirely against Salt Bae. Federal courts ruled in favor of Nusr-Et Miami after workers challenged the restaurant's practice of applying mandatory 18% service charges to employee wages rather than tips. Regardless, the various legal troubles have exposed cracks within the gold-crusted Nusr-Et steak empire.

While Salt Bae's restaurant business quickly capitalized on his Internet success, the longevity of the numerous steakhouses Nusret Gökçe opened on both sides of the Atlantic has been questionable. In the years since Salt Bae became the meme seen 'round the world, several locations have been forced to close. 

In 2020, Nusr-Et Boston, whose recent restaurant opening was met with its own controversy, was temporarily shuttered after city authorities found it had violated COVID-19 and other health and safety rules. The shutdown would eventually be definitive, and a few years later, Salt Bae started hemorrhaging locations. Poor reviews led to the closure of New York City's Salt Bae Burger in 2023, while the Nusr-Et steakhouse in Manhattan's Meatpacking District faced a similar fate in 2024. The Las Vegas restaurant announced its closure in January 2025.

All of this is not to say that Gökçe's empire has definitively collapsed. The steak titan still owns 17 Nusr-Et steakhouses across three continents, the majority of which are in Turkey. Gökçe continues to set his sights on expansion. A new Salt Bae Burger opened in Dubai in September 2026, joining a handful of already established locations in the Middle East and Mediterranean region — though this has not made Bae or his business immune to ongoing critiques and issues that have cast a dubious shadow over the future of the brand.