Everyone likes food but some take it to unnecessary heights and spend what could be someone’s ten years’ salary for ‘ONE’ meal. Fine dining restaurants are having a moment all over the world. As people travel to exotic locations and try all sorts of new cuisines, they are spared no expense to enjoy lavish food and drinks. Recently, one such fine dining restaurant in Abu Dhabi, Salt Bae came into focus and people are getting crazy over what they shared on its Instagram. The reason for getting this much attention was the amount of money those people spend on the meal which was about AED 615,065 or Pkr.35 Million.
Nusr-et Gokce aka Salt Bae became famous after a meme on the internet went viral in 2017. The unique way in which he was using salt to season his steak became an overnight success. His quirky look with a white shirt and sunglasses further added to the meme’s relatability. Salt Bae catapulted to fame and used it to his advantage – he now has his own chain of restaurants across all major cities in the world.
In September 2021, the prices of the Turkish chef’s new restaurant in London left everyone shocked. And turns out his Abu Dhabi restaurant is no different and the shared picture of a bill was from his restaurant in The Galleria, Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi. Dated November 17, 2022, the total amount of the bill came to AED 615,065 or Rs. 1.36 crores approximately. Some of the costliest items on the list included expensive wine from Bordeaux, baklava, and the signature gold-plated Istanbul steak.
Salt Bae, whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, charged an astonishing 9,000 dirham (£2,059) for two gold-leaf covered Istanbul steaks, 5,500 (£1,255) for two golden Ottoman steaks, 4,500 (£1,027) for two beef tenderloin, and a further 3905 dirham (£891) for 11 beef fillet steaks.
But the diners weren’t finished there. They also spent 1,200 dirhams (£273) on five portions of beef carpaccio, an appetizer of thinly sliced raw meat, and 320 dirhams (£73) on four flowering onions.
For four portions of French fries alone, the influencer chef charged 180 dirhams (£41) and 5850 (£1,335) for gold-covered baklava. It would be fair to say that the diners also drank well. Astonishingly, over half-a-million dirhams was spent on wine. There were five bottles of Petrus red wine, costing 325,000 dirhams (£74,200), two bottles of Petrus 2009 Louis XIII costing 200,000 dirhams (£45,661), and a bottle of Chateau Margaux for 15,500 (£3,538).
For a single bottle of Heineken, Salt Bae charged 55 dirhams (£12.50), a negroni cost 75 dirhams (£17), and four virgin mojitos cost 180 dirhams (£41). Just for nine bottles of still water, the Nusr-Et Steakhouse charged 405 dirhams (£92), and 270 dirhams (£62) for six bottles of sparkling water.
Internet users were astonished to see the whopping bill of almost Rs. 1.36 crores at the eatery run by Salt Bae. One furious user said;
“This is lame, that amount of money will help a whole village from dying. This is horrible. Hope you pay your staff as proportionately well,”
“Don’t care how rich I am, I will never support this kind of madness. This is plain stupidity and daylight robbery,” commented another user.
