George Calombaris is to open a Sydney restaurant. Photo: Chris Hopkins

Melbourne-based MasterChef judge George Calombaris is finally giving Sydneysiders an opportunity to road-test his cooking, with the chef planning to open a restaurant in Surry Hills.

The site, on the corner of Albion and Mary Streets, is prime restaurant real estate. The newly opened Firedoor restaurant is nearby and Flying Fish head chef Stephen Seckold​ is opening Salaryman on the lower slopes of Albion Street.

"I can confirm we have purchased a location in Surry Hills, however [we] don't plan to do anything until 2016. It will be a new concept that we bring to Sydney, however we haven't started fleshing this out yet, as we still have a few projects in Melbourne that we need to complete and get open first," a spokeswoman for Calombaris said.

The news isn't as good for Parramatta, where the Melbourne chef was negotiating to open a branch of Jimmy Grants. "Parramatta is definitely not proceeding… [we] just couldn't move forward with our discussions with council," she added.

The Surry Hills project won't be a branch of Jimmy Grants, and while there have been previous attempts to lure Calombaris to Sydney to open a Greek gastro temple, the hot tip is he'll open a more accessible eatery as his Sydney debut.