London debut of Mid-Eastern Salt today mired by brand confusion

Credit: Salt

Who said we are @findsalt?… We are @salt_qa…. They are a different brand completely – Salt London

The imminent UK debut of famous Middle Eastern burger brand Salt in London has been mired by controversy.

Questions surrounding the restaurant’s brand affiliation have been raised in the lead up to their grand opening in Leicester Square later today at 5pm.

Salt London (@salt_ldn) confirmed on Instagram with FtLion: “Yes we are @salt_qa” before declaring: “We are only concerned with our own brand.”

Although the Qatar-based @salt_qa boasts 194K followers and opened its Instagram account in 2020, there is a second one called @findsalt which is not just older, having opened in 2014, but also more popular with 316K followers.

When asked about their association to the latter, Salt London emphatically replied to FtLion: “Who said we are @findsalt?… We are @salt_qa…. They are a different brand completely.”

But @findsalt informed FtLion: “We regret to inform you that this SALT is not the original @findsalt opening in London. @findsalt bears no responsibility for this location.”

Since the annoucement of their launch on Instagram last week, Salt London have received a number of comments revolving around their affiliation.

Controversial lead-up to Salt London’s grand opening tonight

While @neima12 asked Salt London: “Is the same as the one in Dubai [sic],” only to be told by @hayamnoire: “No it’s not,” @nazirkarimi alleged: “Not the same salt as in Dubai.”

In reference to @salt_qa however, Salt London told FtLion: “We have restaurants in Qatar, dubai, saudi, kuwait, [and] bahrain [sic].”

Food blogger Halal Hunt, who was invited to a pre-launch, posted a comment on Salt London’s Instagram stating: “So there’s abit of confusion. In the Middle East there’s two brands. Salt which I posted and also find salt. This brand have been around for years aswell. @salt_qa [sic].”

But his attempt at clarification was contradicted by @amna_jj who said: “[T]heres no two branches the one in Qatar is a knock off version of the official Salt stop spreading misinformation and getting people confused [sic].”

While @alieverywhere_ responded: “@halalhunt: @findsalt pioneered and popularized the food truck culture in dubai and middle east and evolve to what it is right [now] and while Salt in qatar and the one you are promoting now is a brand who copy everything from @findsalt from the font, logo, packaging, menu and everything you can think of [sic].”

After ranting about “a certain halal food account, that doesn’t seem to [uphold] the basic level of journalism, it’s [sic] spreading misinformation”, the controversial food blogger Halal Food Guy posted an Instagram Story claiming: “The one that has opened in London has blocked me and have [sic] confirmed they are not the same as ‘find salt’,” before alleging that @findsalt is “the original salt”.

Salt
20-21 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7JX.

Opening Hours: TBC