Bangkok Cravings, Answered: Easy Buddy Brings Its Thai Rice Bowls to Manila

Some Bangkok cravings are oddly specific.

The smell of holy basil hitting a hot pan. Rice slicked with a savory, spicy sauce. Beef with caramelized edges. A fried egg with a crisp skirt and a deep orange yolk, ready to be broken over the whole thing.

Easy Buddy, the Bangkok-born fast-casual concept that opened its first international branch in Manila, is built around exactly that kind of hunger.

The best place to start is the classic Krapao, which owner AJ Chan recommends for first-timers. It is the simplest expression of what Easy Buddy does well: white rice, minced USDA beef, and a fried duck egg.

“It’s very simple, but when it’s done right, it’s perfect,” Chan says.

Break the yolk over the beef and rice and the dish becomes richer, rounder, and more comforting with every bite. Easy Buddy uses duck eggs, just like the Bangkok branches, giving you a larger yolk with a deeper orange color and more richness than a standard chicken egg.

If you want something more indulgent, order Buddy’s Favorite, one of the brand’s signatures in both Thailand and Manila. Sticky fried rice with slivers of flavorful Wagyu beef and basil, corn, and a fried duck egg. The sticky rice gives the bowl a satisfying chew, while the beef, corn, basil, and yolk layer savory, sweet, and aromatic flavors in one very filling plate. The beef is beautifully tender, slightly sweet and a whole lot of savory. 

Another best-seller is the Krob Krob, stir-fried crispy pork tossed with chili, garlic, and served with Hom Mali fried rice and a tornado-style scrambled egg. It’s everything you hope for in a meal: crispy pork skin, tender pork meat, über savory flavors, fluffy rice, and creamy eggs. It just screams comfort food.

For something lighter, Chan recommends the Holy Basil Egg Fried Rice with Grilled Salmon, one of his personal favorites. The salmon keeps the dish clean and less heavy, while the basil sauce still delivers the punch you expect from Thai food.

The Garlic Peppercorn Egg Fried Rice with Grilled Chicken has also emerged as a surprise Manila bestseller, while more adventurous diners should look at the pork neck with fried rice. Pork neck is a cut more commonly seen in Thailand than on local menus, and Chan compares its tenderness to chashu.

Every rice bowl also comes with a light chicken broth with pickled mustard greens and radish. It is gently sour, savory, and especially welcome between bites of richer or spicier food.

The menu is designed to be flexible without becoming complicated. Diners can choose from steamed white rice, sticky rice, or quinoa, then add toppings such as a fried duck egg or onsen egg. There are also two main flavor profiles: the fragrant holy basil sauce and a peppercorn sauce for diners who want something less herb-forward.

And then there is the spice.

Easy Buddy has slightly adjusted the lower spice levels for Manila, where Chan says Levels 0 and 1 are the most common orders. But anyone missing Bangkok-level heat can still ask for the Thai version. 

Whether you’re going for mild or Thai-level heat, Chan recommends washing it all down with a glass of their Thai Milk Tea or Sour Hour, a low calorie sparkling drink from Thailand that comes in peach and ginger—the perfect way to tame the spice and reset your taste buds. Another amazing way to tame the heat is to get a scoop of their signature ice cream, which comes in coconut and condensed milk.

Keeping the flavors close to the original has required more than just following a recipe.

Easy Buddy imports its sauces and many of its key ingredients from Thailand. Chan and his team traveled to Bangkok to test ingredients, while the Thai team came to Manila for additional testing and staff training. Fresh vegetables, herbs, and eggs are sourced locally where possible, but ingredients essential to the flavor of the dishes are still brought in from Thailand.

Even substitutions are deliberate. One dipping sauce uses calamansi instead of lime because, Chan explains, the right Thai limes are difficult to source consistently in Manila.

The same attention to detail explains why some dishes have not yet made it to the local menu. Easy Buddy plans to introduce its Bangkok noodle offerings, but the team is still working on sourcing fresh noodles that meet their standards.

That level of effort makes more sense once you hear how Chan first found the brand. He discovered Easy Buddy during his trips to Bangkok around 2023 and was drawn to how unfussy it felt.

“What I loved was how accessible the food was,” he says. “I would describe it as almost like an Asian Chipotle, but everything is made fresh to order.”

It took roughly a year and a half of discussions, testing, sourcing, training, and construction to bring the concept to Manila.

The result is food that is quick enough for lunch but still feels considered: hot rice, fragrant basil, tender meat, fiery sauce, and that all-important duck egg on top.

For anyone missing Bangkok, that might be enough to cure the craving.