It started on the sofa. Someone on a television show was eating sushi and it looked terrific. It was Friday night, and the household rapidly reached the same conclusion: there’s a new sushi place on the High Street.
Expectations varied. One simply wanted fresh fish. The 12-year-old had a simple desire: “I just hope there’s dumplings.” The most exacting brief came from the someone who has spent most of their life in California, where sushi is just something that is – like tacos – not a special trip. London sushi comes in two kinds: cheap, pre-prepared, stodgy boxes from Wasabi or Itsu that taste old, or high-end dining with little in between. Could the new place on Putney High Street find the middle?
Ta Ke Sushi has taken over the old Bill’s, which traded there for about a decade before closing in 2023 and then sat dark behind painted murals for three years. We’d eaten at Bill’s once or twice, and walked past the empty shell far more often than that. The fact that there is a restaurant at all on this block is cause for celebration. It is a second branch; the original is on Uxbridge Road in Ealing.
We walked in without a booking at 7.30pm and got one of the last tables. It stayed full all night, with people queuing for the few that came free and others putting their heads round the door. The room does a lot with its space: a sushi counter under a shoal of glass fish lights, big seats at the front with large windows looking out to the street, a cosier section at the back. It feels open rather than cramped, and it’s quieter than a full room on a Friday should be. Someone has thought about sound absorption, the tables are properly spaced and the music is gentle.
Then the reveal. The bowls have a lovely texture, part smooth, part rough, and they look classy. Turn one over and it’s plastic. The walls look and feel like stone until you tap them. Also plastic. This is not a complaint. It’s the trick of the whole place: a premium feel without premium spending, with the money kept for where it matters – on the food while keeping prices down.
The staff were friendly from the door and quick throughout, though they seemed slightly short-staffed for a night this busy. When we needed a box for her leftovers, the wrong box was handed over in the rush; a colleague spotted it and hurried back with one that would hold soup. Elsewhere the rush showed: two forks for four people sharing two desserts, and one order misheard.
That order was the 12-year-old’s. She asked for chicken gyoza ramen, the dumplings she’d been hoping for, and got chicken katsu ramen instead. We didn’t make a fuss because the broth and noodles were so good, she ate nearly all of a big bowl. The gyoza was quickly forgotten; your reviewer ate the katsu. The broth turned out to be the thing everyone wished they’d ordered.
The menu is enormous, a little too big if anything, but clearly laid out. The other child’s vegetable gyoza, green-skinned and crisped on one side, went down very well. The edamame were fresh, with the salt dumped in one spot rather than spread around. The Californian sushi-craver ordered – of course – a California roll, a seaweed hand roll and a plum and shiso maki, and declared the lot delicious.
The sushi was the test. The set, six nigiri with a row of salmon maki for £19.50, arrived with no wasabi on the plate, which we went looking for. The fish was high quality: tuna, salmon, prawn and what seemed to be hamachi among it, each piece melting in the mouth. The rice held together and had a texture of its own, firm enough to carry the fish and nowhere near mushy. Not the best sushi rice we’ve eaten, if we’re being picky, but good. The piece we’ll still be thinking about next week was the last one; the tuna. The pieces are a little smaller than you’d hope. Our guess is that this is the bowls trick again: rather than buy cheaper fish, they cut a smaller piece and keep the price where it is.
The one real miss came at the end. The desserts are bought in from Sakura-Do, a Japanese patisserie, and the matcha tiramisu, served in its own branded box, was really good. The jiggly cheesecake was a little eggy and bland.
The bill for four, with a bottle of Nanbu Bijin sake that really took off with the fish, two lychee and apple mocktails and both desserts, came to £127.80. Service isn’t included, and the bill says tips go to staff in full. It felt like a good price as we paid, and it still does.
So, the test. Ta Ke is not high-end and doesn’t pretend to be. It’s mid-range done really well, and it lands that middle exactly. Everybody ate, everybody left full, and the one who set the test was very happy. You could bring anybody here: a weekday lunch, a family dinner, a big group, a date. We’ll be going back.
The High Street had a hole in it for three years. It has been filled by a restaurant that fills another gap too: the one between the pre-made box and the big night out.
Ta Ke Sushi, 146-148 Putney High Street, SW15 1RR · take-sushi.co.uk · 020 8075 8877 · £127.80 for four with a bottle of sake, two mocktails and two desserts, before tip (about £32 a head) · Open daily, noon to 10.30pm · Weekday lunch menu noon to 3pm · Book online or walk in; it was full on a Friday · Card accepted · Step-free · Kids’ menu for under-12s, £8.50 · Private karaoke room for 15 to 20 · Service not included; tips go to staff in full · We visited once, on a Friday in its second week of trading, and paid in full.
