10 hours ago
Late-night Londoners abandon the kebab for the ‘spice bag'
It's a Friday night and a delivery driver is snaking through traffic towards a gaggle of hungry Londoners. But it's not the usual Thai or Indian takeaway in the insulated bag on the back of the moped — it's an Irish.
Introducing the spice bag, quietly taking London by storm: a white paper bag of crispy fried chicken, deep-fried chunky chips, stir-fried red, green and chilli peppers and a secret blend of hot seasonings, often served with curry sauce for dipping.
Although it looks and sounds suspiciously like salt and pepper chips, the more widely known British-Chinese dish, the specific seasonings, mix of ingredients and addition of shredded fried chicken is apparently the brainchild in 2006 of Sunflower, a Chinese takeaway in Templeogue, Dublin, as an off-menu dish for staff.
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What started as a kitchen experiment grew in popularity; by 2024 the Spice Bag Meal Deal from the nearby Xian Street Food in Dublin made it on to Deliveroo's top ten trending dishes globally.
In the past year the dish has jumped the Irish Sea and is winning hearts and minds — though perhaps not dieticians' approval — across the capital. The number of UK-based restaurants offering their own version of a spice bag has doubled over the past year, and search traffic is through the roof.
One of the most recent arrivals is the entertainingly named Paddy Wok, an Irish-Chinese takeaway based in Deptford that launched on St Patrick's Day this year.
The man behind this mission, Cathal Farrelly moved from Newry, Northern Ireland, to London in 2023 to study business at the University of Greenwich.
'One of the first things I did when I moved to London, like every other Irish person, was look for the Chinese takeaways near me. I tried some of the other spice bags, but let's just say I wanted people's first impression of a spice bag to be the real thing, not London's take on it, so I thought I'd try doing it myself.'
When asked where the concoction sits in Ireland's national identity, Farrelly said: 'This is Ireland's version of England's chicken tikka masala — this is as Irish as we get.'
'We've had people turn up who have travelled for hours to get to us. The furthest I know of is Dover. It's mad but that's exactly why I started this, people are looking for a taste of home.'
Despite starting the business to satisfy any craving for home comforts, much to Farrelly's surprise just 40 per cent of Paddy Wok's customers are Irish.
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He credits Instagram and TikTok influencers for London's sudden interest in spice bags, including @Nasti_2k, who does spice bag reviews on his page that receive up to 3.5 million views.
London's first Irish spice bag specialists, Scaldy, set up shop in July last year, named after a word used in Ireland to describe a devastating hangover.
With a residency at Feeney's, an Irish pub near Tower Hill, Scaldy is the first London kitchen to make the spice bag its main offering, with three options on the menu — chicken, beef and tofu.
When it started it was selling between 200 and 300 bags a month, but now regularly sells 100 in a single day.
The food scene's obsession with the addictive mix even led the cult Yard Sale Pizza to do a collaboration with Jameson Irish Whiskey for St Patrick's Day called the Spice Bag Special.
And it's not just takeaway joints jumping on the bandwagon. The Irish fusion gastropubs the Raglan in Walthamstow and Molly Mc's in Southwark have both upgraded the spice bag to an elevated sit-down dish.
The popularisation of the spice bag is part of a wider evolution of Irish culture in Britain, which has long been defined by pints of Guinness in pubs with names like Murphy's or Kelly's decorated with bright green shamrocks.
You need only look at Homeboy Bar for a glimpse into the future of modern Irish hospitality — a classy speakeasy-style bar in Islington with leather banquettes, bare brick walls and an extensive cocktail menu with five pages dedicated to Irish whiskeys.
Irish fine dining is also on the up. Myrtle Restaurant in Chelsea offers a seven-course Taste of Ireland menu for £105 per head, featuring staples like mashed potatoes, black pudding and boxty, elevated to a level you'd expect for the price tag.
Soda bread and Guinness, Ireland's greatest digestible triumph, have been transformed into viral treats. All across London, customers queue for tacos, breads and cakes made with a good glug of the black stuff.
The Guinness Bread ice cream at Cafe Cecilia, a classic East London foodie establishment, has a cultlike following and the annual Guinness cake drop at Toad Bakery, Camberwell, is met with as much interest as Glastonbury ticket sales.
Given the universal appeal of chicken, chips and Guinness, the Irish invasion is showing no sign of slowing. It might not be long before the full Irish breakfast and Irish Sunday roast make it on to mainstream menus across the country.
