Setbacks, surgery and a brand-new menu: The wild comeback behind Ossington’s Neon Tiger, Canada Reviews

Nothing can stand in the way of a restaurant owner determined to bring their vision and quality bites to the city. If anyone is proof of that it’s Naveen Chakravarti.

Last month, the restaurant owner opened Neon Tiger, an eclectic and high-energy bar and restaurant serving up Pan Asian and Indian dishes, after months of battling cancer and other health issues.

Chakravarti first purchased 108 Ossington Avenue back in the summer of 2024. Just a month later, his trendy Korean restaurant OddSeoul, also located on the strip, closed due to a devastating fire in the kitchen. A month later, he was diagnosed with cancer.

So, he spent months creating a whole new restaurant while rebuilding another — all while going through chemotherapy.

“I would go to chemo for two days, lie in bed, try to go by the restaurant for an hour or two hours a day. Sometimes I would sleep there, I would throw up there — it wasn’t good,” he says. “But we made it, and got it done. It’s a lot of mental energy and physical energy trying to heal your body but at the same time trying to keep your financial life afloat.”

In January 2025, just two weeks after Chakravarti finished chemo, he opened 108 Ossington as Please and Thank You. The cocktail and snack bar saw four months of success before Chakravarti’s health took another turn for the worse.

“One day I was walking, and I couldn’t breathe — my heart just gave out on me,” he says. “I had to go to the hospital again and they found out I had organ failure in my heart.”  

After months away to focus on his health, Chakravarti finally felt ready to reopen the doors of 108 Ossington — this time with a new concept and refreshed menu. The son of immigrants, he says the shift toward Pan-Asian flavours reflects a deeper connection to his South Asian roots, something that became even more meaningful as he navigated his recovery.

From tandoori shrimp and lobster curry to short-rib biryani, the menu is made up of Indian mains and branches out across Asia with dishes like dumplings and chimichurri steak. The drink list mixes playful twists — think a banana-espresso flip — alongside staples like Kingfisher beer. With a $12 beer-and-shot combo and $8 mocktails, accessibility is clearly part of Chakravarti’s reset.

“We want to give people good value for their money because Toronto in general has become very expensive,” he says.

If the name, retro signage and neon-soaked atmosphere — complete with regular live DJ nights — of Neon Tiger sound familiar, it’s because Toronto has seen it before. Chakravarti first launched the concept on Dupont and Avenue in 2021. It ran for about a year before an unexpected roof collapse forced it to close — another setback that speaks to his resilience— before resurfacing in West Queen West in early 2023.