Nusr-Et: an Instagram chain arrives in London
Internet sensation Nusret Gökçe - aka ‘Salt Bae’ - opens his new steakhouse in May

On 17 May, a new steakhouse is due to launch in London’s Knightsbridge, “the spiritual home of the one percenters”, said Tomé Morrissy-Swan in The Daily Telegraph. Although its name, Nusr-Et, may not be familiar, there’s a good chance that its owner’s face will “ring a bell”.
For he is Nusret Gökçe, aka “Salt Bae”, a Turkish butcher whose flamboyant ways with steak have earned him almost 34 million followers on Instagram. Five years ago, Gökçe’s restaurant business was a “small chain”, with branches in Turkey and Dubai. Then a video of him displaying his signature move – “cocking his arm like a goose neck and sprinkling salt over meat from a great height” – went viral, and he became an internet sensation.
Since then, Nusr-Et has expanded fast: it now has 17 branches across the US and the Middle East, making it arguably the world’s first “social media-spawned mega-chain restaurant”. The food it serves isn’t to everyone’s taste – critics have described the steaks as “rubbery” and “mundane” – and the prices are eye-watering.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Still, we live in an age when “social media has overtaken the critic as an arbiter of what to eat”, and it seems likely that deep-pocketed social media obsessives will flock to Gökçe’s latest venture.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's opposition
The Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
How the woke right gained power in the US
Under the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
-
Codeword: April 24, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
By The Week Staff