• Recipes from Frank Camorra

MoVida will close its Sydney restaurant in Surry Hills at the end of the month, joining an upcoming exodus of big name restaurants in the harbour city including Marque and Rockpool est. 1989.

An award-winning Spanish restaurant in Melbourne before expanding north, owner Frank Camorra believes he got the location wrong when he transplanted MoVida to Sydney four years ago.

"Absolutely it was a mistake [choosing Surry Hills]. Our business model stacks up much better in the CBD," he says.

"In the city you get people using the bar area before they go elsewhere. There's more of a concentration of restaurants that work off each other," the chef adds.

Camorra was set to extend his Sydney restaurant interests with the opening of MoVida Next Door in the CBD.

"The location fell through. We have been looking at other sites but the locations and rents don't match, so unless [we get] an unbelievable offer we are unlikely to proceed," Camorra says.

Sydneysiders can still access a "simpler" MoVida offer at the domestic airport.