ue Jimmy Hendrix's Foxy Lady and Garth's accompanying Wayne's World seduction dance. Now let's begin.

Diners (and cocktailers) that possess elephant-calibre memories (remember – they never forget?) may recall that there was once a bit of a dining scene at Tempo on College Street, which stopped the beat in 2005. It won respect for Chef Tom Thai's cuisine, while nobody noticed that there was no kitchen (Thai used a convention oven at the centre island).

Post Tempo, Thai spent his time nomadically wandering the globe and re-examining his forté, before returning to Canada’s culinary Mecca - Toronto. Most recently, sharp-eyed customers may have picked up his scent and followed the trail to his own restaurant, Foxley.

Initially, Thai's Foxley was cast as a mere showcase for his Vietnamese-Thai culinary wizardry; then the area dwellers of the Ossington strip – most of which have never heard of Tempo or Youki, let alone Tom Thai - turned up in droves and morphed the 40-seat Pan Asian eatery into their own little neighbourhood nook. The nerve of those benighted, unrefined plebeians!

The simple, direct name above the little storefront that conjures the welcome air of a Parkdale snack-bar, is attractively humble, complete with a worn tiled floor that looked as if it could tell stories from the days when it was a Vietnamese diner (or perhaps we really shouldn’t know those stories without risking our appetite). High-design is not to be expected here so refrain from balking at the simple interior style - Thai had a limited budget, after all. However, those seeking out the flavours that the chef once churned out at the RIP-ed Tempo, will get it in spades.