Salt Bae is sick of being typecast as the guy who seasons steaks flamboyantly. Now he wants to be known as the guy who charges extortionate amounts for milkshakes and gives free veggie burgers to ‘ladies’.
Nusret Gökçe – best known for his Big Dick Energy salt sprinkling – owns a number of steakhouses across the world, with locations in Turkey, the UAE, the USA, and Mykonos.
The Nusr-Et brand hasn’t always been well received, with Eater, the New York Times, and others writing unfavourable reviews of the chain.
However, they’ve recently gone viral again, after a customer spotted a few strange items on their menu.
The first thing that’s got people angry is the veggie burger, which is ‘free for ladies’. Much like the restaurant that was criticised for offering smaller, ‘ladies’ steaks, it’s not totally clear why it’s marketed towards women.
Studies have shown that meat is considered to be more masculine and that women are twice as likely as men to be vegetarian. But does this really necessitate a pink burger bun?
The burger sounds nice, and we’re all about freebies, it just seems like if you’re going to promote a healthier plant-based lifestyle, it’s not ideal to make it a gender issue.
Then there are a few items that have angered people over their price point.
A burger featuring gold leaf – a wholly unnecessary ingredient that adds no flavour or texture to a meal, but does show fellow diners you’ve more money than sense – costs $100 (£77)
A milkshake also with added gold is $99 (£76), compared to the next-most-expensive shake at $24.95 (£18).
A tweet showing a picture of the menu by New York Magazine food critic Adam Platt has garnered a number of disparaging comments.
Adam’s tweet says: ‘$99.00 #saltbae ‘Golden Shake’ w gold leaf?! (c/o our eagle-eyed END OF DAYS correspondent @amortowles’.
One commenter replied, ‘Good thing that there are no men who are vegetarians (except me and lots of others),’ while another said, ‘Too distracted by ‘Free for ladeeez’ Be still my beating heart…’
Even more people mentioned that parmesan isn’t actually vegetarian, and noted that the Easy Burger and Juicy Burger appear to be exactly the same.
Basically, Salt Bae is getting rinsed.
With a new London restaurant by the steak aficionado due to open in Knightsbridge soon, we can all see for ourselves whether Gökçe wants to give us women some free pink buns.
We have contacted Nusr-Et for comment and will update this article when they reply.
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