People are leaving 1-star reviews for Salt Bae's restaurant after he served steak to Venezuela's president

TripAdvisor/Yusnaby Pérez/Twitter

A composite image showing "Salt Bae" Nusret Gökçe serving Nicolas Maduro, superimposed with critical reviews on TripAdvisor.

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ate at the viral chef Salt Bae's restaurant, Nusr-Et, in Istanbul on Monday.
• Many people - including US Senator Marco Rubio - criticised Salt Bae for serving Maduro while people go hungry in Venezuela.
• Branches of Nusr-Et have started getting one-star reviews, citing disgust at the support for Maduro.

People are leaving one-star reviews on Trip Advisor and Google for restaurants run by the viral chef known as "Salt Bae" after he personally served an expensive steak dinner to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

Salt Bae, whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, received widespread criticism after footage went viral of him flamboyantly serving Maduro at an Istanbul branch of his Nusr-Et chain.

He deleted two tweets promoting the meeting amid the backlash, which focused on the poor optics of Maduro feasting on expensive steak while many of his people are starving because of Venezuela's crippled economy.

In the wake of news coverage of the event, people used review platforms like TripAdvisor and Google to punish Gökçe with one-star reviews.

Business Insider identified 15 one-star reviews across the portfolio of Nusr-Et restaurant, mainly of the Turkish branches.

One, writing partly in Spanish, called Nusr-Et "immoral" for hosting Maduro:

Trip Advisor

A review left on Tuesday.

Others for a branch in Besiktas, Istanbul, said:

"The owner of this restaurant supports a dictator who is killing millions in Venezuela. Don't support this type of restaurant. While Maduro is having a feast at his resturant, millions are living in Venezuela without food, medicine."

Another wrote: "Don't support the owner's lack of ethics and display of support to a character that is starving millions of people in Venezuela. This is simply disgusting. Don't know if dishes are good or not but you have to also take in consideration the working ethics."

The author attached photos of starving people in Venezuela:

Trip Advisor

Reviews criticising Salt Bae are commonplace.

Marco Gomez left a one-star review and called it "food for dictators," and someone else left a one-star review on the Besiktas resturant's Trip Advisor page with a similar message, saying: "No more dictator support."

Trip Advisor

"No more dictator support."

Maduro was in Istanbul for a stop-off on his way from China, where he went to ask for more loans for his economically stricken country.

Recent polls of Venezuelans show that many struggle to afford food, and the country often sees mass protests because of the economic hardship. The government has advised Venezuelans to breed rabbits for food as a way to beat their hunger.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is one of the most vocal critics of Gökçe, and called on people ot make life difficult for him.

One tweet said: "This guy @nusr_ett who admires dictator @NicolasMaduro so much actually owns a steakhouse in, of all places, #Miami." He posted the Miami restaurant's phone number as well.

Rubio told the Miami Herald on Tuesday: "This is someone who is celebrating a criminal. Nicolás Maduro is systematically starving the people of Venezuela."

A Venezuelan protestor was outside the Miami restaurant on Tuesday holding a sign saying: "Nusr-et: We demand a public and immediate apology."

A larger protest is scheduled for midday  Wednesday, the Miami Herald reports.