Two of Putney’s restaurants have gone dark within weeks of each other: one with genuine Michelin ambition, the other a budget chain that only ever needed footfall.
Chopstix Noodle Bar at 92 Putney High Street has closed. The till units have been unbolted and removed from the counter, leaving rusted mounting frames visible through the window. Cleaning equipment is out, and promotional signage still hangs from the ceiling above. Chopstix’s own website no longer lists the Putney branch: the store page has gone, and so has the address from its stores list.
Chopstix opened on the High Street in August 2023 despite the council refusing an application to install extractor fans, after nearly 100 objections from nearby residents. It traded there for three years regardless.
Further along, “Openin’ Soon” hoarding is now up at 79-81 Putney High Street, confirming the rumour we reported in August: Popeyes is taking over the unit Chicken Shop left behind.
If a chain that only needed footfall to survive can’t make the High Street work, that’s a worse sign for the street than an independent closing alone.
Ambitions thwarted
On Lower Richmond Road, Raaz remains closed and it looks increasingly permanent. The burst pipe that closed it in July flooded the premises from a flat above, and the “mid to end of July” reopening the restaurant’s own website promised never came.
It is now September. The entryway ceiling has collapsed over a wide section, debris is scattered across the floor, and the outdoor planters have been left dead and untended. No repair work is visible.
It wasn’t the first sign of trouble, back in December, when founding chef Imran Mansuri left after six months. The glowing reviews at launch made the restaurant’s Michelin ambitions feel entirely credible.
Behind the restaurant, Soiree Hospitality Group UK Limited has now missed three separate deadlines at Companies House. A compulsory strike-off notice was suspended in May, but the confirmation statement that triggered it still hasn’t been filed, more than eight months after it fell due. The company’s first accounts, due 4 September, are also now overdue. Sole director Manish Mallick has yet to complete the identity verification Companies House required by last December.
