A popular restaurant has closed owning the council more than £100,000.

Jimmy’s World Kitchen in High Street was part of a chain and outlets of that chain have racked up at least £639,000 in outstanding business rates across the country over the last three years.

The Watford branch closed last month to the surprise of staff and customers who had bookings for the coming days.

Speaking on behalf of Watford Borough Council, David O'Neill said the business owed £101,000 in unpaid business rates.

READ MORE: Jimmy's World Kitchen mysteriously closes without explanation.

Of the chain's 11 locations, at least six local authorities including Watford are owed money or have written off debts.

In Brighton more than £200,000 is owed in unpaid business rates dating back to its opening in November 2014.

Elsewhere the restaurants continue to trade, having been passed from the ownership of a now-defunct company into the hands of a new one.

In Epsom, the restaurant is still open, but over the course of 2015 Epsom and Ewell Borough Council wrote off debts totalling £62,000 from the previous incarnation of the business.

Bath and North East Somerset Council is owed £114,000 and Peterborough City Council is £95,000 out of pocket.

Meanwhile Spelthorne Borough Council is working with insolvency specialists to recover approximately £40,000 from the Staines restaurant.

Jimmy’s has now removed the “Watford” page from its website, but the chain is not the only town be left out of pocket by this mysterious company.

At least five other local authorities are owed rates totalling more than £600,000, either by the current company or by one of several other corporate entities which have owned or had links with the chain in recent years.

The same men’s names appear and reappear as directors or shareholders in connection with the business, including Kuldip Singh, Amandeep Uppal, and Zulfiqar Ali.

Online at jimmysrestaurants.com, nine branches are listed (it was 11 a month ago until the Watford closure and a similar vanishing act in Brighton) but no company information is provided.

The firm remains active on social media but seem to be selective when it comes to its topics of conversation.

The business posted on its Facebook account on Monday to encourage bank holiday bookings.

But it does not seem to have replied to an August 17 post from a customer which reads: “So not only have you ignored two tweets about disgusting service and a dirty restaurant, you ignored an email of complaint too! Customer service just gets better!”

The council, which does not have any legal responsibility or right to credit check companies which rent property from private landlords, said recently it was currently pursuing a firm called Jimmy’s Restaurants Ltd for the outstanding rate money.

Jimmy’s World Restaurants has not responded to the Observer's repeated attempts to contact it via email, telephone and social media.