According to RTÉ research, Sunflower Chinese takeaway created the spice bag in Templeogue, Dublin.
The spice bag is an Irish takeaway dish combining fried chicken, chips, onions and peppers with a salty, chilli-heavy seasoning. RTÉ’s reporting traced its origin to the Sunflower Chinese Restaurant in Templeogue, where staff reportedly developed it as a post-work snack around 2008 or 2009.
A common mix-up is Tallaght. Just Eat recorded the first spice-bag order on its platform in 2012 from an outlet in Tallaght, but that is evidence of an early recorded order—not necessarily the dish’s invention. The nearby locations help explain why both suburbs sometimes appear in accounts of the spice bag’s early history.
The dish later spread across Ireland’s Chinese takeaways and became a defining modern Irish fast-food creation. Its name refers to the characteristic packet or bag of seasoned chips and fried ingredients, although recipes vary considerably between restaurants.