Is Sydney set to score a new culinary double-act?

• The Resident, Sydney, closes just five months after opening

A new Sydney CBD restaurant featuring the combined talents of chef Pablo Tordesillas and the owner of the Strand Arcade's hatted Pendolino restaurant? Yes, please. Tordesillas earned the notice of critics nationwide at Brisbane's Ortiga before relocating to Sydney last year to cook at Hyde Park start-up, The Resident. Reviews praised the Spaniard's food, but the College Street venue didn't lure enough diners, closing after just five months.

"There's no doubt he's a talented cook, he can do anything. We caught up recently … we go back a long way," Pendolino's chef-owner Nino Zoccali told Good Food.

While Zoccali sidestepped talk of an imminent opening, he says he has been approached by "a couple of development sites". Word on city streets is a newly-renovated city pub site is keen for the culinary double act.