Remember #saltbae?

The shades-donning, moustached dude clad in a thin white tee tucked into belted black trousers exploded onto the online scene in 2017 with the then-most dank meme of January — his signature salt-sprinkling move.

This defining action of Nusret Gökçe, a Turkish restaurateur and butcher, gained him millions of fans from his dramatic meat preparation methods.

You would think that the meme's since died out, but the cool chef's gotten so successful that he's since expanded his business from Turkey to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Miami and New York City.

So this is #saltbae 😍😍😍👅👅pic.twitter.com/RkzGEiCMXE

— LoLa (@lolalissaa) January 8, 2017

Saltbae Tower pic.twitter.com/kEasx3h9Fa

— Nusret #saltbae (@nusr_ett) January 8, 2018

The Singapore connection

One year on, the Financial Times reported that state investment organs GIC and Temasek, as well as Metric Capital, a London-based investment firm, are in talks to potentially purchase a minority stake in a group of high-end restaurants including Gökçe's Nusr-et Steakhouse. 

Talks are ongoing regarding the purchase of D.ream group, a subsidiary of Dogus group, which owns these restaurants.

And the valuation of D.ream group is estimated at US$1.5 billion (about S$1.98 billion). which is pretty much a big deal, until you hear about the bad reviews concerning Gökçe's steakhouses:

Meat lacking in flavour at high prices?

As the business expanded from Turkey to the U.S., complaints begin to trickle in like grains of salt artfully sprinkled onto sliced meat — the meat served wasn't nearly as superb as it looked on social media, and reviewers complained of meagre and poorly done portions.

The New York Post described the steakhouse's mustard-marinated Ottoman steak as "shoe leather tough", with globs of fat, along with "high-school grade" french fries and a rather disappointing salad.

New York food site Eater also mentioned how expensive the experience was -- US$320 (about SS$422) for a review dinner for two, despite the fact that that the reviewers went away still hungry, describing its offerings as "low on flavour".

It seems people went there to satisfy their hunger for the chef's flashy moves and their Instagram feeds, rather than going there to enjoy a good steak or burger, which you could quite likely get elsewhere for less.

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Gökçe also wears gloves while performing his salt-sprinkling these days, after some talk that he violated Article 81 of New York City’s health code, which outlaws handling cooked food with bare hands, and wearing jewellery (a watch) while doing so.

👌🏻🔪👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/ruA1jDRSHq

— Nusret #saltbae (@nusr_ett) February 10, 2018

"Luxury brand"?

This begs the question -- will the restaurant be any good if a decision is made to go beyond backing it financially and bring it to Singapore?

Well, one reason cited by FT of the two Singaporean investment vehicles looking into these high-end restaurants is their status as luxury brands -- think of Nusr-et as the Gucci of steakhouses.

Interestingly, these restaurants are reportedly performing better than high-street clothing and accessories brands — hence being for Temasek and GIC to look into getting a meaty slice of the restaurant's pie.

All that said, it's good to keep in mind that Temasek and GIC are looking to buy the company owning the restaurants, rather than being directly involved or influencing the expansion of Gökçe's steakhouse.

In other words, all this has pretty much zero bearing on any possibility of #saltbae coming to our shores anytime soon.

Even so, one thing we can be sure Singaporeans won't forgive is the choice of this being among the group of restaurants Temasek and GIC is looking to invest in -- or the currency of the meme.

Spokespersons for Temasek and GIC have both declined comment.

Top image adapted via nusr_et on Instagram