It developed from tapsi, which referred to meals of beef tapa and sinangag with no fried egg explicitly mentioned, and diners which mainly or exclusively served such meals were called tapahan or tapsihan in Filipino.

[3][4] Due to the popularity of this type of cuisine in the Philippines, some restaurants, fast food chains such as Jollibee and McDonald's Philippines and even hotels have included silogs on their breakfast menus, and some restaurants and fast food chains like Tapa King and Rufo's Famous Tapa exclusively or mainly serve this type of dish.

[5] Following the development of tapsilog, many other types of silog have been created, all based around garlic-fried rice and fried egg, and suffixed with -silog.

There is a similar dish from Malaysia, the nasi lemak, which is served in a variety of manners using meat, egg and rice with coconut milk.

More honest places will call this "kalog", from kanin, the general term for cooked rice.