He became famous for the steak with a 600-pound filet, tasted even by Albanian politicians, as Nusret’s ‘empire’ is collapsing

Nusret Gökçe, the Turkish social media sensation known as Salt Bae, built a restaurant empire around a fanbase drawn to his extremely expensive steak £680 for a filet and gold-plated baklava for £50. Based in London at the Knightsbridge Nusr-Et restaurant, Salt Bae tried to expand in the U.S. with great fanfare, opening restaurants in New York, Beverly Hills, Boston, and Miami in the late 2010s.

But it seems Salt Bae is not keeping up with the times, and his U.S. expansion is destroying him. His American business reported losses of £5.4 million in the last tax year. After opening seven branches, he now has only two left in the U.S.: one in downtown New York City and one in Miami.

Things haven’t been much better in Knightsbridge. His U.K. business reported a loss of £5.5 million last year. Salt Bae drew football stars like Ronaldo and David Beckham to dine on his “24-karat” steak in Knightsbridge. Gökçe gained fame in 2017 when a video of him sprinkling salt on a steak went viral.

He went on to open his chain of restaurants with eleven locations around the world, including Milan, Mykonos, Istanbul, and Abu Dhabi, with a London branch that opened in September 2021.

He now has over 52 million followers on Instagram, and his London restaurant has hosted players like David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Wayne Rooney.

However, Gökçe has proven to be a divisive figure. He angered football fans on social media after making his way onto the field at the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, where he was photographed shaking hands with Lionel Messi and holding the trophy after Argentina’s win.

His Knightsbridge restaurant is also ranked 14,912th out of 22,655 London restaurants on Tripadvisor, with a rating of 2.9 out of five stars from nearly 400 reviews.

“KORÇA BOOM”