Fancy a gold-covered steak for £100? Restaurant offers budget version of Salt Bae’s signature dish

A restaurant is selling a budget version of the much derided and expensive gold steak from Salt Bae’s London restaurant and now more people can indulge in frippery.

John Stirk, who runs Stirks Steakhouse in Belmont, near Sunderland said he decided to make the £100 steak – which feeds two – to show it could be done cheaper and for an apparently higher quality.

He said: “What annoys me about the restaurant in London is that there’s a lot more pictures of people posting receipts for how much they’ve paid for the food rather than the quality.

“This time last year people couldn’t afford to feed their kids and now social media is full of receipts for how much they’ve spent at a restaurant. It just feels wrong.

“For me it was about showing that the gold-covered steak could be done cheaper and could be done better. It doesn’t have to cost the earth.”

It comes after the launch of Nusr-Et Steakhouse in London horrified potential punters as people circulated expensive receipts on social media and other diners wrote negative reviews about their experience.

Stirk said he was not saying £100 was cheap but he said it was appropriate for a special occasion and that he was surprised about how popular it has been.

Stirk, a former contestant on the BBC show Young Butcher of the Year, is not the only chef who has paid homage to ‘Bae’ by whipping out some edible gold.

Gareth Mason, head chef at Absolute bar and bistro in Westhoughton, Bolton, covered his signature dishes – such as pies, sausage and bacon sandwiches, carrots and chips – in 24-carat gold to mock Salt Bae.

He said:“It’s more Morecambe Bay than Salt Bae. We’ve got the traditional Lancashire dishes covered in gold for a fraction of the price you’d pay at his restaurant.”

Meanwhile, vegan food company THIS set up a food truck outside the Knightsbridge Nusr-Et restaurant handing out free vegan rolls.

Then there’s the modest chefs at indy100 who had a laugh last week covering KitKats and coffees in edible gold.

Regardless of the criticism and mockery, it seems Salt Bae’s gold-covered gravy train chunters on.