ChiliHead Social Bar & Eatery — Restaurant in George Town

Truly authentic, truly Thai at Chili Head

Chili Head Social Bar and Eatery, a cool and hip Thai restaurant overlooking the beautiful marina at Straits Quay serves excellent authentic Siamese food. Here is a place where Thais themselves would love to eat. We delved into an evening of Thai indulgence at Chili Head with the iconic "Miang Kham" that translates to "single-bite wrap". Well, that is how this dish is eaten – assembling your choice of condiments onto a betel leaf, topping it with the sauce, wrapping it and feeling the enjoyment. The flavours would all come alive in your mouth as you chew. After such an appetising starter, we were each served a plate of steamed rice as the Thai dishes started to roll in. Even before we sampled the dishes, the wonderful aromas were good enough to whet our appetite. The aromatic Pandan chicken was tender and fragrant. Grilled marinated pork skewers (Moo Ping) with a spicy in-house dipping sauce was among my favourites that evening. Glass noodle salad (Yum Woon Sen) with seafood, minced pork and chilli-lime dressing had just the right amount of sour, sweet and spicy oomph. It had a great mix of flavours and with fresh herbs. This dish is simply amazing. Kangkung in batter, deep-fried until golden, has to be one of the best ways to cook this vegetable thoroughly. The crispy texture was light and non-greasy. Kaeng Som - spicy and sour tamarind fish soup with prawns served with Cha-om omelette (omelette with Acacia leaves) – was a detour from the usual Tom Yum. The savoury laksa-like texture of the gravy was rich and lovely. These imported spicy sausages (Sai Ou) were packed with distinct spices and a strong turmeric flavour. Pak Lieng is also imported from Thailand as this vegetable is not common at our local markets. The Spice and Herb Sea Bass dish was served with lemongrass, shallots, lime, ginger, cashew nuts and mint leaves in sweet tamarind sauce. The combination for fresh ingredients made this dish ingenuously scrumptious.

After such an array of dishes, we still had a little room for desserts. The usual suspects were the classic Red Ruby (Thub Thim Krob) – water chest nut with jackfruit in coconut milk and mango with glutinous rice served with coconut milk. The dinner was such a fabulous Thai feast that we left Chili Head contented and happy as we do not have to travel to Thailand to enjoy the 'real thing'. Penangites are indeed a lucky bunch. Service was good and the cosy contemporary decor even had a mural by...

I wasn't planning to eat here but serendipitously ended up here and it was indeed a good decision as I enjoyed my meal here. I was early enough that there was a table just next to the walkway which gave us an unrestricted view of the boats and yachts making the dining experience more enjoyable.

It's not the best Thai food in penang but it's definitely above average. The tables are a bunched together but not too close to be claustrophobic. The decor / environment is clean and uncluttered. While the waiters were prompt, friendly and helpful.

With regards to the food, the belacan fried rice could've used a bit more belacan and a lot more wok hei. The seafood custard was however delicious with a good interplay of spice and heat. I was a little disappointed with the sizzling prawn as it came with a whimper without any sizzle. Fortunately the taste was good and prawns fresh.

The mouth watering green curry had a good medium spice which doesn't overwhelm the tongue and the pandan chicken came in a good generous portion with tasty sauce. The cashew chicken was just average but complimented the other dishes well.

They have a good variety of drinks to choose from and the draught Guinness came cold, foamy...

Went for my mom's birthday today. Arrived, we sat down, ordered and waited for 45min to an hour for food to arrive. We ordered large portion since we have a lot of people. But the portion was so small. We ordered a large green curry for RM 40 expected a lot but when it came, only size of soup bowl. Like WHAT. Then we ordered the onion omelette, large also. About RM 25 but the size was same or smaller than a personal pizza. They charged so much for just eggs and onions for such a small portion. So disappointed. Besides that, the service sucks. We ordered pandan chicken, they didn't have it and didn't bother to inform us that it wasn't available. They just brought some random dish to the table. HUHH? Never seen that before. Then it was my mom's birthday so we had cake. We asked for plates for the cake and wouldn't even give it to us. They were like no no no cannot. We asked for serviettes or tissue and they said no cause the boss don't allow. The food was mehh. Not bad but not good. Don't recommend. Don't come. BTW bill came out to be 250++. The band's singer had a nice voice though. That was the only...