Social media chef Salt Bae’s restaurant business slumped to a record loss last year after US expansion went awry.

Nusr-et UK, which owns the Knightsbridge restaurant Nusr-Et, lost £5.4m before tax last year, according to newly filed accounts. It came after the business wrote down the value of its US operations by £6.6m.

Diners at Nusr-Et can choose a wagyu strip loin for £680, an Istanbul steak for £240 and a skirt steak for as much as £380, followed by a 24-carat gold-plated baklava for £50.

Sales at the Knightsbridge restaurant, owned by Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, nicknamed Salt Bae, rose by £1m to £10m last year.

But overall the UK company slumped to a loss after American expansion struggled.

Nusret US Inc, which is fully owned by the UK business, was forced to shut one of two New York restaurants and its Boston outpost last year.

In June of this year, Salt Bae closed several other US locations, including its Beverly Hills branch, as part of a “realignment to focus on international growth.” The chef has now gone from having seven locations in the US to just two in the US: in New York’s midtown and Miami’s financial district.

“They tried some markets out,” a spokesman for Nusr-Et restaurant group said last year. “Some worked while others haven’t.”

The loss of £5.5m for the UK company compared to a profit of £1.7m a year earlier. That figure had almost halved from 2022.

Mr Gökçe found fame in 2017 when a video of him flamboyantly seasoning a steak went viral.

He went on to start his own line of restaurants with eleven locations across the world, including in Milan, Mykonos, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi, with a London branch opening in September 2021.

The social media star now has over 52 million Instagram followers, and his London restaurant has hosted David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

However, Mr Gökçe has proved a divisive figure. He enraged football fans on social media after finding his way onto the pitch at the Fifa World Cup final in 2022, where he was photographed shaking hands with Lionel Messi and handling the trophy following Argentina’s win.

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

Nusret UK declined to comment.

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Source Yahoo Finance