Four out five stars

The aroma hit me the moment I walked in.

Spicy, warm and flavorful, Bangkok Thai immediately promises a delicious meal.

Generally, pizza places, sandwich shops and fast food restaurants rule the collegiate dining market, but even in a small Midwestern city like Charleston, some variety can be found.

The menu offers a variety of traditional dishes from the four regions of Thailand: Northern, Northeastern, Central and Southern. The dishes draw influences from Chinese stir fries and Indian curries.

Like Vietnamese cuisine, Thai cuisine is known for using fresh herbs and spices rather than the traditionally dried varieties.

Thai food is known for its balance of four or five fundamental flavors in each dish, spicy, sour, sweet, salty and occasionally bitter.

Though they offer everything from papaya salad to fried noodle dishes, I order the Panang Curry with chicken and a Singha beer.

The curry is billed as a sweet, coconut milk based dish and is served with a mound of white rice.

As tradition dictates, the curry is at once sweet and spicy, certainly spicier than I had anticipated, sour and salty.

I have found many spicy dishes try to be as hot as possible, often sacrificing flavor for heat. The Panang Curry, though, is full of flavor.

The other curry dishes are much spicier than this one, but they all contain coconut milk, except the extra hot Jungle Curry, that adds a sweet taste and rich flavor.

Bangkok Thai has a large selection of vegetarian options, offering tofu as an option with chicken, beef and shrimp for the curry and noodle dishes. Vegetables also take a prominent role in many of the offerings.

Singha is Thailand’s oldest beer, first brewed in 1933 and sold worldwide since the 1970s.

It is often considered synonymous with Thailand, but I found it mostly just tasted like a slightly peculiar Budweiser.

There is nothing unfamiliar in the beverage, and it is easy to down the entire thing before the actual food arrives. If there is actually any left by the time the food arrives, it compliments the sweet and spicy food well.

The wait staff is friendly and knowledgeable of the menu. They are quick to refill a glass, knowing some of the customers will be overwhelmed by the spicy food.