Salt Bae's restaurant just got targeted by Animal Rebellion protesters

The eye-watering food prices at Salt Bae’s (real name Nusret Gökçe) London restaurant in Knightsbridge have certainly raised eyebrows since it opened late last year - from the likes of TV personality Gemma Collins to Guardian food critic Jay Rayner and now, Animal Rebellion protesters.

The group, who want to start a “transition to a just and sustainable plant-based food system” to try and stop “mass extinction”, “the worst effects of climate breakdown” and give “justice for animals”.

Confirming the protest on their Twitter account on Saturday night, Animal Rebellion said they were doing it because “luxury dining represents exploitation, climate devastation and inequality”.

In September 2021, a receipt from the Nusr-Et Steakhouse in the capital went viral after it was revealed the restaurant was charging £630 for a giant tomahawk steak and £11 for a Red Bull.

“We don’t need gold-coated steaks, we need urgent action – we need a plant-based future.

“The restaurant is famed for its steaks – products of environmental destruction and worker and animal exploitation. This is not a sustainable food system,” they wrote.

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It was accompanied with a video appearing to show activists sitting at tables inside the plush venue, and refusing to budge.

A short while later, another clip was shared, showing a female activist carried out of the restaurant by four waitresses and placed on the street outside, before staff went back into the building.

It wasn’t exactly a case of “getting dragged out by security” as the tweet described.

That same evening, at least 16 Animal Rebellion supporters “occupied” the Michelin star Mana restaurant in Manchester, which takes reservation bookings at £195 per person.

“While 2 million in the UK rely on food banks, high-end restaurants are catering to a wealthy minority.”

Photos shared of the sit-in showed the protesters holding the group’s green branded menu, with a starter of “support for farmers and fishing communities to transition to a plant-based food system” and a dessert of “[the] rewilding of freed-up land and ocean”.

The activists claim this process would “spare the lives of 1.2 billion land animals”.

Those involved were – like their London counterparts – carried out of the building, but this time into the back of police vans, which were called to the building.

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