This 'Steak Guy' Went From Social Media Sensation to Jeddah Restaurant

Before opening Crusty, the Jeddah-based beef and burger joint, Abdullah (who only goes by his first name) had a different way of expressing his artistic side. Walls were his canvas, colour and chaos were his language. Cooking wasn’t part of the plan. But creative callings have a way of finding you, and for him, it found a grill.

“I was dieting so my food used to be bland… so I’d go on YouTube and watch how-to videos,” he says,“Then I started wanting to get creative.” Steak became his obsession, more than chicken, more than fish, and, soon enough, the now-restaurant owner’s friends started calling him ‘steak guy.’

By 2018, he turned into a full-fledged food blogger, filming his recipes, posting them online, experimenting with flavours and ideas that were entirely his own. Without the funds to open a restaurant, Abdullah found another way to test the waters. He reached out to local eateries, asking if he could collaborate and post a dish at their restaurants for a limited time. Sometimes it was a steakhouse, sometimes an Asian restaurant, sometimes a burger joint.

A few years later, during Ramadan, Abdullah turned heads behind the basata, a tradition exclusive to Jeddah during the holy month, similar to a pop-up street-food stall, where people typically cook and sell plain fries. Abdullah’s ways of challenging the status quo resurfaced once again.

“As an artist I never followed tradition. And I think the same thing applies to my food and recipes, he tells SceneNow Saudi. Suddenly, the lines wouldn’t stop. The stall was closing close to one hundred checks a day. The following year, Abdullah opened a stall himself, serving high-quality steak with fries and people noticed the difference.

Then came Kabsa Fries. Fries piled with shredded beef, Kabsa sauce, and a scoop of cucumber yogurt. Only thirty plates a day, yet the stall was buzzing nonstop. At its peak, they were closing almost 500 bills a day, with more than twenty people working behind it.

Abdullah kept the same rules throughout it all: experiment, create, and let people experience it. “People liked the idea that the steak was high quality, the sauce was different, and it was served with fries,” he said. “It was something people remembered.” At Crusty, his newly-opened restaurant, he and his team serve the food that gave him his nickname, as well as smash burgers and other specialized items, sharing them with Jeddah. Soon enough the region and beyond will have a taste of what Abdullah brings to the table with plans on expanding Crusty, to cities including Dubai, London, and Riyadh.