A former Salt Bae employee says the London restaurant is 'McDonald's for rich people' and serves frozen fries

• A former Salt Bae employee told Mail Online the London restaurant is "immoral."
• Nusr-Et, which opened in London in September, quickly gained widespread attention for its prices.

A man who says he's a former employee of Salt Bae's London restaurant has called it "McDonald's for rich people" for serving frozen fries, according to a Mail Online article published on Thursday.

Guillermo Perez, who told Mail Online's Laurence Dollimore he worked as a sommelier at Nusr-Et in Knightsbridge until he was fired in January, said the restaurant is "immoral" because of its price markups. He said it charges £3,000, or around $4,000, for bottles of wine worth £1,000, or $1,400.

Nusret Gökçe, more commonly known as Salt Bae, who first took social media by storm in 2017, opened the Nusr-Et location in Knightsbridge, London, last September to immediate widespread attention for its high prices. Charging $850 for a steak and $15 for a can of Red Bull, some users on Twitter branded the restaurant's prices "extortionate," Insider previously reported.

"One day I saw a big bag of frozen chips and I thought 'really? That's what we are serving people?' And they had Heinz ketchup and mayonnaise, which you can get from the shop," Perez told Mail Online.

Representatives for the restaurant Nusr-Et and Gökçe did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Perez, who told Mail Online he's 30 years old and originally from Madrid, said he's worked as a sommelier for eight years, and claims to have been fired from the company for eating avocado and rice during a shift. According to Perez, workers were not allowed to eat from the staff canteen past 5:30 p.m., and although he explained that the food he brought with him was his own, he said he was told to meet HR 30 minutes later.

During the meeting, Perez said he was told not to return to work the next day. He said he pressed HR for justification for being fired and was told he was not selling enough wine, according to Mail Online.

Perez added that he'll soon be starting a new job as a sommelier on a luxury cruise liner.

Despite the criticism, the restaurant chain has still proved popular with celebrities. Figures including David Beckham and Jason Statham have posted Instagram photos alongside Gökçe at his restaurants.

Perez did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.