Thai Social — Restaurant in Melbourne

I'm not a huge Pad Thai guy. That makes it a "hard mode" dish by my review criteria. What I mean is that dishes like dumplings, fried rice, and ramen (what I consider "easy mode" dishes) are all more likely to get a good or great score from me, whereas a Pad Thai will typically get a lower score. That means a truly good Pad Thai is something special—a trendsetter, a top contender, something worth celebrating.

The three stars aren't because the food wasn't good—it was. But I'm comparing this to a place I dined at last week that was exceptional, and similarly priced. In comparison, that place had a terrible Thai coffee but an excellent Pad Thai. This place had an okay Pad Thai but an excellent Thai coffee. I think at some point, I'll do a review for that place in the future.

There are also a few other reasons for the 3 stars: I had very high expectations from the 4.7 Google review score. And so, there was a certain something I was expecting from Thai Social—some magic, a dining experience that would be top-tier, leaps and bounds better than any other place.

The chicken Pad Thai was around $19, and the Thai milk coffee was $6.50. But… if you include the GST and surcharge, it ended up being $28.50.

It's expensive, and so my already high expectations soared through the roof, as you can imagine.

I think I understand what makes a good Pad Thai: it's the sauces. The sauces in this case had a sweetish soy flavor, but there was also a kind of bitter taste I wasn't a huge fan of. The chicken also had a little bit of a funny taste—it almost tasted like it was cooked from frozen, or cooked, then refrigerated, then reheated. I've got a knack for detecting that—it’s like a sixth sense.

But it was kind of subtle, and I think the sauces masked that taste a little bit.

Otherwise, the chili flakes were a nice touch and decently spicy. The garnishes and peanuts also tasted nice and fresh.

The coffee was the real star—sweet, but not diabetes sweet. Not in-your-face sweet. A sweet, condensed milk flavor that complemented the coffee, rather than competing with it, if that makes sense?

All in all, I couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed. And it could have been the chicken, or the sauces. And yes, the price might be part of it, too.

I have a philosophy: if the food is not unique, or not a decent portion for the price, you're already starting on "hard mode" with my standards, so to speak. "Unique" are things like chili flakes in this case—but also, is the dish uniquely tasty or delicious? Something you can't find anywhere else?

And for me, Thai Social doesn't quite meet either standard, unfortunately. With a 4.7 rating, I'm sure it meets other people’s standards, and they must be doing something right to have a score like that with over a thousand reviews. I might be the outlier in this case—who knows?

But that's why I prefer ordering a Pad Thai over, say, a Green Curry. If I can thoroughly enjoy it (even if it's a little expensive), it'll get a...

A Thai restaurant with flavour and portion size to match the chadstone price.

A group of us went to the restaurant and arrived without a booking at a peak time - 12:00pm on a peak day - Sat for lunch as 2 of us were craving Thai Green Curry.

I must say the service was incredible, polite, fast and very warm. The decor takes you by surprise as its a lot of colours but, the vibrancy of the atmosphere does keeps it alive. As far as atmosphere is concerned, i believe as it was peak time. It was loud and hard to even talk among ourselves as the restraurant was packed with only 1 empty table.

Coming to the food. We ordered, Pad Thai, - 7/10 Pad Thai with Egg Net Wrap -7/10 Chilli Crispy Pork with Egg omelette on Rice - 8/10 Thai Green Curry, - 8.9/10 Chilli Basil Chicken - 9.5/10

As rated above the food was amazing. Well above average. Especially the thai green curry. Chicken was extremely tender and beautifully cooked with flavours oozing out of it, as well as it was in claypot with fire at the bottom. Making it extra hot and extra special.

However the Chilli Basil Chicken was the star of the show and stole the show i would say. It is been a while since a chicken dish was well balanced in flavour and had incredible taste and surprised me when i ate it. I would recommend ordering that on your next visit with your meal to share.

Overall it is an incredible restraurant, Would I return - Definitely. Some time soon. And Maybe try Laksa this time and see how it compares to...

I had dinner at your restaurant on Saturday, 24/05/25 around 7:30 PM and unfortunately, it was a very disappointing experience. I was seated at table 11A with my boyfriend. We ordered three items from a young female staff member with glasses. One of the dishes I pointed to was the Chef’s Recommendation: Crispy Pork Prik Khing, clearly shown in the photo on the pork menu.

However, what I received was not what I ordered. When I asked the staff about it, the same person who took my order insisted that I had pointed to “number 1,” which I absolutely did not. I am confident about what I ordered, and I even pointed directly to the photo. My boyfriend went to pay at the counter, and the staff did not repeat the order back to confirm. Another staff member claimed that they always repeat the order — clearly that was not the case with us.

This was the first time I really wanted to enjoy a specific dish, and I couldn’t even eat the one that was served. My boyfriend and I ended up leaving the dish untouched and left feeling extremely disappointed.

The attitude of the staff made things worse — instead of trying to resolve the issue, they were defensive and insisted it was our fault, relying only on their team’s version of events. There was absolutely no sense of customer care or service mind👎🏽.

This has been one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. We won’t be returning and hope this feedback helps improve your service...