Fourteen years since opening Flinders Lane restaurant Coda together, followed by modern Indian restaurant Tonka in 2013, chef Adam D'Sylva and restaurateurs Kate and Mykal Bartholomew have formally ended a business relationship they say has been strained for several years.

D'Sylva is no longer an owner in either business.

"Different interests" was the reason stated by Mykal Bartholomew for the split.

D'Sylva, The Age Good Food Guide 2008's young chef of the year, says that, for him, it's time to move on to bigger and better things.

"It kind of came to the end of the road. My easiest option was to move on," D'Sylva says.

The chef plans to focus on Lollo restaurant at The W Hotel in Melbourne, as well as opening more locations of his Ivanhoe gelateria, Boca.

"We were so close," Bartholomew says. "[Coda] wouldn't have succeeded without the three of us.

"But when one partner goes missing, you fight for who gets custody of the kids," he said, referring to the restaurants.

Bartholomew says that anyone who has visited Coda since 2018 has eaten the food of head chef Hendri Budiman. D'Sylva says they shared the responsibilities.

Budiman has held the role for six years, including two years at the restaurant's outpost at the Lorne Hotel, which held its last service at the end of January. The food Budiman cooked at Lorne is closer to what is on the current Melbourne menu, with fewer of the French and Vietnamese dishes that made waves when Coda opened in 2009.

Chanon Boriharnvanakhet, a Coda alumnus, is the newly appointed head chef at Tonka. Bartholomew says he will be returning Tonka to its roots of Indian ingredients given a contemporary twist.