Ping Pong Restaurant Closures UK: All Four Sites Shut for Good

Ping Pong posted two words on Instagram on 2 July 2025. “It’s a wrap.” The four remaining UK sites had closed the previous day, and staff found out at the same time as the public, through the post.

Twenty years of trading in London ended without a final service or any advance warning to the people who worked there.

The dim sum chain had opened its first restaurant in Soho in 2005, grown to 13 London sites within four years, and survived a pre-pack administration in 2022. By July 2025, it was gone. Here is how it happened.

Which Ping Pong Restaurants Are Closed in the UK?

All four of Ping Pong’s remaining UK restaurants closed permanently on 1 July 2025, when insolvency firm Begbies Traynor was appointed as administrators to parent company AJT Dimsum Ltd. The following day, the chain confirmed the closures on Instagram.

No Ping Pong restaurants remain open anywhere in the UK.

Ping Pong: From One Soho Site to Thirteen London Restaurants

Kurt Zdesar opened the first Ping Pong on Great Marlborough Street in Soho in 2005. He had spent years running Nobu’s operations across Europe before the idea of an affordable, casual dim sum chain in London became something he could not put aside. Igor Sagiryan, a Russian investment banker, provided the capital.

The early growth was fast. Eight restaurants opened within two years of the first site, and at its peak the chain ran 13 locations across the capital, serving more than 40 types of dim sum, steamed, fried, and baked. A set lunch in 2006 cost £11.

Zdesar left in 2007. He and his investors had different views on how fast the business should expand, and those differences had become too wide to work through. He believed the pace of growth was damaging the brand. His backers disagreed. He sold his stake, bought a farm in Hertfordshire in 2008, and attempted to retire at thirty-five. It lasted less than a year. He eventually launched Chotto Matte in 2013.

Art Sagiryan, son of original backer Igor Sagiryan, became CEO of Ping Pong in 2013 and ran the business through to the final closure.

The Losses That Started Long Before the Pandemic

The collapse of Ping Pong’s UK restaurants is often described as a pandemic story. The financial records tell a different one.

The business had been recording losses on and off since at least 2010. By 2017/18, turnover had stalled at £16.8 million and the group was already exiting shopping centre locations. When the pandemic arrived in March 2020, it hit a business that had been financially fragile for years. Covid deepened the losses but did not create them.

The 2022 Administration: How the Chain Survived the First Time

By the end of 2022, Ping Pong had been reduced to six London restaurants and a central production kitchen, employing 255 people — half the size of its peak.

The immediate trigger was a single landlord. During the pandemic, the chain had built up significant rent debt across multiple sites. Most landlords agreed to concessions or wrote off what they were owed. One demanded more than £900,000 in full by autumn 2022 and threatened a winding-up petition once the rent moratorium ended.

With a trading loss of £448,000 for the six months to September 2022, there was no way to meet that demand. Begbies Traynor was appointed as administrators on 18 November 2022. A pre-pack sale completed the same day, passing the business to a new company, AJT Dimsum Ltd, set up by three existing directors: James Horler, Tim Thorpe, and Artem (Art) Sagiryan. The sale price was £3.21 million. More than £124,000 worth of stock transferred with the assets, and 225 staff moved across to the new entity.

The business continued trading. The following two years saw the portfolio shrink further to four sites, and brought the controversy that would define the chain’s final chapter.

The Brand Charge, the Backlash, and What the Coverage Missed

In April 2024, Ping Pong replaced its 12.5% service charge with a 15% discretionary brand charge. The timing was tied to the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act, which came into force in October 2024 and legally required all hospitality businesses to pass tips and service charge income directly to staff.

Every menu was updated with the following printed wording:

“A discretionary brand charge of 15% is added to your bill. This covers additional costs associated with operating a franchised brand and delivering the dining experience to brand standards.”

At the same time, wages across the business were raised by 19%, from £10.42 to a minimum of £12.64 per hour. CEO Art Sagiryan issued a public statement, reported by The Caterer:

“With a fairer wage structure in place, our customers should not pay any extra service charge or tips. To achieve this change, we need to increase revenue by 15%.”

The backlash was immediate. Bryan Simpson, hospitality lead at Unite union, called the move “a complete slap in the face” for workers. Time Out London published a critical piece in August 2024. TripAdvisor reviews turned negative within days.

The previous service charge had sent 90% of its proceeds to staff. The brand charge, as written on the menu, went to the business. That was the core of the complaint, and it was legitimate.

What the coverage at the time did not address in equal measure:

• The wage rise put staff at £1 above the new legal minimum, not just at it
• The charge was discretionary throughout, not compulsory
• AJT Dimsum had publicly committed to reviewing the policy in June 2024, with options including reverting to service charge or raising menu prices instead

The administrators’ report, published by Begbies Traynor in August 2025, confirmed that the media backlash and customer reaction contributed directly to reputational damage and the footfall decline that preceded the final collapse.

Other hospitality groups facing identical cost pressures in 2024 raised prices or restructured pay without issuing public explanations. They received no press attention. Most are still operating.

The Final Twelve Months

The Begbies Traynor administrators’ report recorded a strong Christmas trading period in late 2024. What followed reversed it.

From April 2025, three cost increases arrived simultaneously:

• Employer National Insurance rose to 15% on salaries above £5,000, up from 13.8% on salaries above £9,100
• The National Living Wage increased again
• Business rates on central London sites went up

Together, these added approximately £500,000 to annual operating costs that the business could not absorb. Revenue in 2025 was running 20 to 25% lower than the previous year’s figures, according to the Begbies Traynor report.

The company sought advice from Begbies Traynor in spring 2025 but could not reverse the position. The board met on 4 June 2025 and voted to enter administration. Begbies Traynor was formally appointed on 1 July. The Instagram announcement went up the following morning.

The UK Restaurant Sector in 2025

The closure of Ping Pong’s UK sites was not an isolated event.

According to the Hospitality Market Monitor from CGA by NIQ and AlixPartners, an average of two licensed venues closed permanently every day across the UK in the first half of 2025. Restaurant insolvencies in the year to September 2024 reached 1,409, up from 1,180 the year before, the highest level in over a decade. The sector had lost an estimated 100,000 jobs since the October 2024 Budget. S&P Global recorded the longest continuous decline in hospitality staffing in sixteen years.

Other restaurant closures around the same period included Soif in Battersea, Thali East in Bristol, Yiamas in Glasgow, and Gary Usher’s Kala in Manchester, all shutting within weeks of Ping Pong’s final service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Zdesar, who had been away from the business for eighteen years when it finally closed, left a comment on the Instagram announcement.

“The UK has become increasingly difficult to survive this current economical environment,” he wrote. “Very sad news.”

The Ping Pong name no longer trades anywhere in the UK.