The bag is the last thing your kitchen touches and the first thing the customer touches. Get it wrong and a AED 90 order arrives with a torn handle and a grease stain on the customer's car seat — and the one-star review that follows will not mention the bag.
Quick answer: restaurants in the UAE need three bag sizes, not one. A small A5 bag for single items and desserts, a medium A4 bag (roughly 33×26×13 cm) for the standard one-to-two-person delivery order, and a large A3 bag (roughly 35×44×10 cm) for family orders and catering. Printed readymade paper bags start at AED 850 per 100 in A4 (AED 8.50 each) and AED 900 per 100 in A3. If your bag is a retail carrier rather than a hot-food carrier, printed non-woven bags start at AED 1.26 each and cotton totes at AED 2.17 each. All prices include 5% VAT. WhatsApp +971 52 210 0909 for a sized quote.
Start with the order, not the bag
Most restaurants pick a bag by looking at a supplier catalogue. Do it the other way round: put a week's worth of real orders on a table and sort them into three piles.
- Single-item pile — one coffee and a croissant, a slice of cake, a dessert box, a sandwich. Roughly 30–40% of orders in a café.
- Standard pile — one or two mains, a side, a drink. This is your volume pile and it is the size you will buy in thousands.
- Family pile — four or more mains, or anything with a large pizza box or a shared platter in it.
Measure the tallest item in each pile and the widest footprint. Then add 2 cm of headroom so the bag can be folded or stapled shut. That is your specification — and it takes twenty minutes, which is twenty minutes better spent than a year of ordering the wrong size.
The three sizes that actually work in the UAE
Bag sizing here follows paper sizes, which makes it easy to talk about with any printer:
- A5 (roughly 17×22×8 cm) — desserts, single coffee, pastries, small retail items. Also the size cafés use for the branded bag that goes out with a takeaway cup. Cheap enough to give away with everything.
- A4 (roughly 33×26×13 cm) — the workhorse. Fits two burger boxes side by side, or a main plus a side plus a drink standing upright. If you stock one size, stock this one.
- A3 (roughly 35×44×10 cm) — family orders, catering drops, retail purchases with boxed items. Note the shallow 10 cm gusset: A3 bags are tall and flat, which suits documents and flat boxes but not a stack of round containers. If your family orders are bulky rather than tall, ask for a deep-gusset custom size instead.
- Euro format (13×22×8 cm) — the narrow, tall luxury bag. Chocolates, patisserie boxes, a bottle. It photographs beautifully and it is the wrong shape for anything hot.
One more thing nobody mentions until it goes wrong: a bag that is too big is worse than a bag that is slightly too small. Food slides around, sauce containers tip over, and the driver has nothing to grip. Snug is safe.
Delivery vs takeaway vs retail — three different problems
Delivery is the hardest job. The bag sits in a hot box on a motorbike, gets stacked, and is carried by the handle up three flights of stairs. What matters: handle strength, a flat base that will not tip, and a way to seal it (a sticker or a fold-and-staple) so the customer can see it was not opened. Heavier board and a laminated finish survive condensation from hot food far better than a thin uncoated bag. If you are running a cloud kitchen, a printed tamper-evident sticker across the fold costs a few fils and removes an entire category of customer complaint.
Takeaway counter is easier: short journey, customer carries it themselves, the bag mainly has to look good in the queue and in the photo. This is where print quality earns its money.
Retail — a bakery selling packaged goods, a café selling beans and merchandise — has a completely different economics. Here the bag is not a container, it is a billboard the customer carries around the mall and then reuses at home. That is the case where a reusable non-woven or cotton bag beats paper, because the second, tenth and fiftieth use are free advertising.
Real prices: bags for UAE restaurants and cafés (2026)
Live prices from the store, VAT included. The first block is printed paper bags; the second is printed reusable bags, priced per piece.
| Bag | Best for | Qty | Price | Per bag |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Readymade A4 paper bag, 250 GSM, 1-colour logo | Standard delivery order | 100 | AED 850 | AED 8.50 |
| Readymade A3 paper bag, 250 GSM, 1-colour logo | Family & catering | 100 | AED 900 | AED 9.00 |
| Euro premium black bag, gold metallic print | Patisserie, gifting | 500 | AED 2,470 | AED 4.94 |
| Fully custom paper bag, 250 GSM art matt, full colour | Signature retail bag | 100 | AED 1,950 | AED 19.50 |
| A5 black non-woven bag | Giveaways, small retail | per pc | — | AED 1.26 |
| A4 black non-woven bag, 32.5×25×12 cm | Reusable retail carrier | per pc | — | AED 1.75 |
| A4 white non-woven bag (full-colour sublimation) | Photographic artwork | per pc | — | AED 2.45 |
| Cotton shopping bag, 145 GSM, 38×42 cm | Bakery & merch retail | per pc | — | AED 2.17 |
| Recycled cotton tote, GRS-certified, 140 GSM | Sustainability story | per pc | — | AED 4.40 |
| Cotton hobo bag with front pocket, 340 GSM | Premium branded tote | per pc | — | AED 7.00 |
The numbers point somewhere specific. A paper bag costs AED 8.50 and is thrown away after one journey — about AED 8.50 per impression. A non-woven bag costs AED 1.75 and is realistically reused twenty times. Which is why the correct answer for most restaurants is both: paper for hot food going out the door, and a reusable bag on the counter as a paid add-on or a loyalty reward. Browse the full range in the Bags collection, or go straight to Paper Bags and Non-woven Bags.
GSM, handles and the two failures that cost you reviews
GSM is the weight of the board. Supermarket-grade bags are 120–170 GSM. Retail-grade is 250 GSM, which holds 3–4 kg and keeps its shape in a photograph. For hot food that means it survives the steam without going limp at the base — the single most common paper bag failure in a UAE summer.
Handles are the other failure point, and they fail at the glue, not the middle. Twisted paper handles are fine for A5 and light A4 loads. Cotton-rope handles are stronger and feel premium, and they are what you want on anything carrying more than 3 kg or anything a customer will keep. Flat paper handles are the cheapest and the first to tear.
One practical trick: spec a reinforced base card on your delivery bag. It is a flat piece of board that sits in the bottom of the bag, costs very little, and stops the base from bowing when a hot container sweats into it.
What to print on a restaurant bag
- Design the gussets. A bag is seen from the side while it is being carried. A logo on the side panel roughly doubles the impressions you get per bag.
- Put the QR code where the hand is not. A direct-order QR on the front panel, well clear of the handle grip and the fold line.
- Print your delivery hours or minimum order. Boring, but it answers the question that drives the most repeat calls.
- Dark bags photograph better. A black or deep-colour bag with white or metallic print reads premium on Instagram and hides grease marks on the way home.
How to order
- Send us your three measured sizes — or just tell us your average order and we will size it for you.
- Pick paper or reusable (or both), and choose the print method: screen printing for one or two colours, full-colour sublimation on white non-woven for photographic artwork.
- Approve the proof. We print only after your approval, and deliver across Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates.
Pay by card including Amex, split into four with Tabby or Tamara at 0% interest, or bank transfer. Payment is taken in full before production. Opening a new outlet? The Restaurant Opening Kit covers boxes, cups, menus and table mats for AED 2,299, and we will match the bag artwork to it for free.
Frequently asked questions
What size paper bag does a restaurant need for delivery?
A4 (roughly 33×26×13 cm) covers the standard one-to-two-person order and is the size most UAE restaurants buy in volume. Keep A5 for single items and desserts, and A3 for family orders and catering. Measure your tallest item and add 2 cm of headroom for folding the bag shut.
How much do printed paper bags cost in the UAE?
Readymade A4 paper bags with a 1-colour logo on 250 GSM start at AED 850 per 100 (AED 8.50 each) and A3 at AED 900 per 100, VAT included. Premium black bags with gold metallic print drop to AED 4.94 each at 500 pieces, and fully custom full-colour bags start at AED 1,950 per 100.
What GSM should a food delivery bag be?
250 GSM is the retail and food-delivery standard: it holds 3–4 kg and resists going limp when hot food creates condensation inside the bag. Lighter 120–170 GSM board is fine for cold, light retail items only.
Paper or non-woven bags for a café?
Paper for hot food leaving the counter — it is food-appropriate, cheap in the moment and disposable. Non-woven or cotton for anything the customer keeps: at AED 1.26–2.45 per piece and twenty-plus reuses, a reusable bag costs a fraction of a paper bag per brand impression.
What is the minimum order for printed restaurant bags?
Paper bag printing starts at 100 pieces, one of the lowest minimums in Dubai. Non-woven and cotton bags are priced per piece from stock, so small first orders are straightforward before you commit to volume.
Can you make a custom size instead of A4 or A3?
Yes. If your containers do not fit a standard size — a deep gusset for round containers, or a wide shallow bag for pizza boxes — we make bags to measure. Send the dimensions of the item you need to carry and we will size the bag around it.
Get your bag sized properly
Send a photo of a packed order — bag, boxes and all — to WhatsApp +971 52 210 0909 (or call 052 210 0909) and we will come back with the right size, the right GSM and a price across two or three quantities, usually the same day. Or start browsing in the Bags collection.
Related reading: Paper Bag Printing in Dubai: Sizes, GSM & Real Prices · Restaurant Packaging Printing in Dubai · Burger Box & Food Packaging Printing in Dubai
