🍝 Best pad thai in Australia

14 cities ranked by the strength of their best pad thai. Follow any city through to its full ranked list.

● Updated September 2026

The verdict: on the numbers, Brisbane has Australia’s strongest pad thai — led by Pawpaw Cafe (4.7★ across 3,737 Google reviews).

#	City	Its best pad thai	Rating	Reviews
1	Brisbane	Pawpaw Cafe Woolloongabba	4.7★	3,737
2	Melbourne	Jinda Thai Restaurant Abbotsford	4.4★	2,344
3	Canberra	Zaab Braddon	4.6★	1,035
4	Sunshine Coast	Dee Den Restaurant Buderim	4.8★	2,205
5	Adelaide	Lantern by Nu CBD	4.6★	605
6	Sydney	Chat Thai - Sydney CBD	4.4★	3,535
7	Darwin	Cha Ching Melbourne	4.7★	2,625
8	Newcastle	Light Years - Newcastle CBD	4.7★	1,632
9	Gold Coast	Iyara Thai Restaurant Broadbeach	4.6★	1,032
10	Perth	BAAN BAAN Perth CBD	4.6★	849
11	Geelong	Siam Alley Thai Cuisine Geelong West	4.8★	425
12	Cairns	Lanna Thai Restaurant Cairns City	4.6★	1,343
13	Hobart	Thai Veggie Hutt CBD	4.6★	239
14	Wollongong	At Home Thai Cuisine (Wollongong) CBD	4.7★	280

How this national table is built: it is not a separate opinion. Each city contributes the venue that currently tops its own pad thai ranking, and the cities are then ordered by that venue’s score — review strength above a 3.8 baseline weighted by review volume, plus community mentions where we hold them. Cities are only listed where we actually rank the dish, so an absent city means no ranking yet, not a bad one. Rebuilt weekly.

City by city: Brisbane · Melbourne · Canberra · Sunshine Coast · Adelaide · Sydney · Darwin · Newcastle · Gold Coast · Perth · Geelong · Cairns · Hobart · Wollongong.