Last May 24, one of the Metro’s most beloved Thai casual dining restaurants, Thai Mango, opened its sixth dine-in branch in Eastwood City. With exciting announcements about expansion and other future plans from their management team, Thai Mango aims to reinvent the way you enjoy Bangkok street food this 2024.

Sawadeeka, Eastwood!

Thai Mango opened its Eastwood branch store on May 24. Its dine-in restaurant boasts a whole new look and feel, a step up from its classic Thai dishes and fruit shakes, and a surprise reveal of its newest mascot: Sawadee!

This branch is the brand’s “Flagship Branch,” which showcases an elevated look compared to past branches. The brand specifically wanted to step up its game and worked with design firm Headroom, known to decorate some of the most stylish and aesthetic restaurants in the metro.

This branch is located at Le Grand Tower 1 in Eastwood City. It’s strategically located near condominiums and office buildings, making it easy for Thai food lovers in the Eastwood area to access.

During the opening, they shared with their guests some of the bestselling dishes from their menu. Some stand-out dishes were their Chicken Pad Thai, Mango Sticky Rice, Thai Fried Chicken, and mango desserts, which are classic Thai food staples done amazingly by Thai Mango.

Thai Mango also offers some Vegan options, which you can see on their delivery website at www.thaimangodelivery.com, Grabfood, and, of course, their dine-in restaurants.

It all started with four sisters and a blender

Before becoming the sought-after casual dining chain that Thai Mango is today, everything started with just two things: The Baquiano Sisters and a Blender.

Thai Mango is a family-owned and operated business by the Baquiano sisters. Co-founders Kim Baquiano, Jash Baquiano, Bee Baquiano, and Frangela Baquiano started the brand to help their mom return home after working for years as an OFW.

They knew that it had to be their own hard work that would push their mom to come home to Manila. They took a gamble and started a fruit shake business. With ambition and a dream, they took the chance and bought their first business investment, a blender, which they even shared they got in installments through a credit card. Their initial goal was just to get their mom home and the blender paid; little did they know what Thai Mango would be for their family.

The sisters started to join bazaars where they would have a stall and where they would sell their fruit shakes. They would join multiple bazaars until they chanced upon meeting Mr. RJ Ledesma, one of the key founders of Mercato, who saw the potential of their concept and helped them grow Thai Mango by giving them a regular slot in the Mercato bazaars.

Multiple shakes later, the pandemic struck the world. Multiple businesses had to pivot, and so did Thai Mango. From being a regular at the BGC Mercato bazaar, they were pushed to venture into delivery as a means to keep their business afloat in such a complex and challenging time.

Thai Mango started with self-serviced delivery, where they would take orders from the brand’s social media page and book riders to get their fruit shakes to their customers. When they saw the potential of delivery, they signed up with GrabFood to help gain more traction for orders and to serve a wider reach of customers through delivery. For Thai Mango, signing up for GrabFood was one of the best choices they made as it helped their branch expand, and until now, the brand attributes GrabFood to a huge part of their success.

After months of working hard during the pandemic, they opened their first branch in Malate, which was still a delivery-only branch, given that the world was still in the midst of a pandemic. 2022 started to roll in, and Filipinos were eager to eat together and dine in after years of being locked up at home. Thai Mango knew it had to start to pivot from being a delivery-reliant brand to being a restaurant chain that has both a dine-in offering and a delivery service.

Being a business that never backs down from adapting, Thai Mango opened its first dine-in branch in BF Homes, where it didn’t just serve fruit shakes but also Bangkok Street Food at an affordable price. Thai Mango seemed to have found the secret sauce to making Thai food appealing and affordable to the Filipino market as they’ve been expanding since their first dine-in branch.

2024 and Beyond for Thai Mango

Thai Mango currently has nine branches: six dine-in branches, with two of their branches on soft opening and three take-out and delivery-focused branches. However, Mr. Qeen Xeres Hita, the President of Thai Mango, shared during the Eastwood opening that they plan to expand to 10-12 branches this 2024. After the opening of their
Eastwood branch will also bring its fast-casual concept to Commonwealth and Bonifacio Global City. Both branches are currently on soft opening and will soon have their grand opening, which they will announce on their social media.

“We envision Thai Mango to become a 1 Billion Peso Brand. We’re thankful for the advice our mentors have given us as well as the support of our staff and our customers. We’re also aiming to have 10-12 restaurants by the end of 2024.” – President of Thai Mango, Mr. Qeen Xeres Hita

As for their dishes, Co-founder and Head of Research and Development Chef Kim Baquiano-Hita shared that they will focus on further improving their current menu. With the overall look and feel of their dine-in restaurants elevating, the main offering of Thai Mango, which is the tasty dishes and fruit shakes, will not get left behind and will step up as well with the brand.

Chef Kim aims to have Thai Mango’s dishes conquer the Thai fast-casual niche in the Metro, as few Thai brands are as affordable yet delicious as Thai Mango. However, she did tease that you should always check out Thai Mango’s social media pages for any possible new dishes and drinks.

“As our kitchen has just recently stepped up, we’ll be focused on elevating the existing food offerings that we have before we release new ones. We want the food to improve as our dine-in experience for our customers improve as well.” – Co-founder and Head of Research and Development, Chef Kim Baquiano-Hita

At the end of the day, this brand isn’t just focused on expanding its offerings and branches. Thai Mango is dedicated to reinventing how Thai food is enjoyed by the Filipino market. They aim to make Thai less intimidating, more accessible, and affordable while keeping each dish authentic and delicious to what Bangkok street food truly is. With this vision in mind, as well as the leadership of the Baquiano family, it’s exciting to see where Thai Mango will be in a few months and in the coming years.

Thai Mango is a great example of a small business that can reach great heights with hard work, prayer, faith, and the push to adapt and innovate.

If you would like to join Thai Mango on its journey to growing its small business into a 1-billion peso business, you can follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok.

This is a press release. Minor edits have been made by the 8List.ph editorial team.

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