Whenever I go to a restaurant, there’s always a dish that makes it or breaks it for me. Ordering risotto is a great way to find out if the chef is actually capable of serving Northern Italian fare, and asking for paella in a Spanish eatery might lead to delight or utter disappointment.

At Thai restaurants, my make-it-or-break-it dish is chicken basil. As simple as it may sound, this concoction features most of the key ingredients of Thai cooking: fragrant ginger, fresh basil leaves and a mixture of meat and vegetables in a dark, fish sauce-based gravy.

Thai Star is a small eatery tucked into the side of a strip mall between an Oriental tapestry dealer and a dance studio. Still, in a town where indulging in Asian food means ordering sweet and sour chicken at a major chain like P.F. Chang’s, Thai Star offers to those unfamiliar with Thai food a vast array of new dishes to discover.

Influenced by nearby Indian and Chinese cuisines, Thai fare is famous for balancing the five fundamental flavors: sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter. Rich coconut milk, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves give Thai curries and soups a depth rarely achieved by your usual Chinese take-out. With its incredible variety of spices and flavors, Thai cuisine is unlikely to bore even the most jaded eater.

Accompanied by two friends, a spicy food aficionado and his less-adventurous brother, I rolled into the parking lot at Thai Star after a long day at work. It was my fifth visit to the restaurant, my friends’ first, and I was eager to introduce them to some of the best Asian fare in town.

The restaurant is small and the dim lights create a nice cozy atmosphere. The sweet smell of soy sauce and stir-fried food welcomes you at the door together with the always-friendly staff. The menu, on the other hand, is everything but minute: Thai Star offers more than 60 dishes that range from simple appetizers and soups to luxurious duck entrees to exotic-sounding frog leg specialties.

We ordered a couple of appetizers to keep our empty stomachs at bay: a pork satay ($6.95) — grilled pork tenderloin bites on a stick — and kanom jeeb ($6.95), a Thai version of pot stickers. Our starters arrived quickly. Marinated in cumin, coriander and chili powder, the pork was grilled to perfection and served with homemade peanut sauce. Although not a big fan of peanuts, I have to admit that this dipping sauce wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet or too rich: just a perfect combination of sweet and salty that enhanced the spices on the pork. The kanom jeeb was also very good: thin wonton skins stuffed with minced chicken, shrimp, bamboo shoots, mushroom and scallions were steamed and served with black soy sauce, a simple but very tasty appetizer that became an instant hit, even with my friend who had never had Thai food before.

Most Thai restaurants use a one-to-five spiciness system: one is mild and five hot, the latter supposedly too spicy for Western palates to handle. Sometimes a 5 is extra spicy, and sometimes it isn’t, but over the years, I’ve gravitated to real heat, Level 5 and above.

For main courses, I ordered chicken basil ($12.95), while my friends opted for a red curry with beef ($14.95) and a serving of pineapple fried rice ($10.95), every dish a five out of five spicy. We weren’t disappointed.

The chicken basil was masterfully executed: the chef wasn’t shy with the chili-garlic paste and delivered to our table a true Level 5 chicken with fresh basil leaves, Thai chiles and extremely fresh and crunchy mixed vegetables that were simply delicious.

The beef red curry was also very good: Tender pieces of steak were slowly cooked in a rich coconut milk sauce with a generous amount of red curry paste, bamboo shoots, bell peppers and basil leaves. Sweet and spicy at the same time, this earthy, satisfying dish literally melted in our mouths even as our taste buds were buffeted with more spiciness.

The pineapple fried rice was a classic rendition of rice cooked in yellow curry with chicken, shrimp, egg, pineapple and raisins. The addition of the fruit was a nice touch, and although the dish wasn’t spicy enough to win my heart, it’s a safe, mild dish to order for people who can’t stand too much heat.

For a little over $60 we left Thai Star stuffed and with some leftovers, my mouth still tingling from all the delicious spiciness of our entrees, my stomach pleasurably full and my mind already dreaming of my next spicy chicken basil.