Takeout Bag Sizes for Restaurants: What Actually Fits

Most takeout bag guides tell you the sizes exist. They do not tell you what fits in them, which is the only thing you actually need to know.

Here is the practical version, written around the containers real kitchens use.

Size by what is going in the bag

13 x 7 x 13 - the single-order bag

Takes two to three standard clamshells stacked, or one entree plus a side and a sauce cup. This is the bag for the majority of single-person orders: a sandwich and fries, a burrito and chips, one hot entree.

Where it struggles is height. A 32oz soup container with a domed lid, or anything upright and tall, will sit proud of the top. If most of your orders are single meals in flat containers, this is your everyday bag.

13 x 7 x 17 - the same footprint, four inches taller

Same base as the small, so the same containers sit flat, but four extra inches of height. That sounds minor and is not. It is the difference between a bag you can close and a bag you cannot.

This is the size for orders with a drink, a tall soup container, a stacked noodle box, or a bag that needs to close over the top for delivery. If you run delivery through a third-party platform, drivers stack bags in insulated cubes and a bag that closes matters. Most kitchens end up using this as their default and keeping the small one for simple orders.

14 x 9 x 16 - the family order bag

Nine inches of gusset is the point of this bag. It is not just bigger, it is deeper, which is what lets you put containers side by side rather than stacked. Two-person and family orders, catering drop-offs, anything with a pizza box or a large tray.

The wide flat base is what keeps containers level, which is the difference between a sauce arriving in its container and a sauce arriving in the bag. See the large size here.

The mistake most kitchens make

Standardising on one size.

It feels efficient. In practice you either buy a bag big enough for your largest order and waste money and shelf space on every single-item order, or you buy for the median and improvise on big ones with two bags and an apology.

Two sizes covers almost every kitchen: a single-order bag and a family bag. Three if you do a lot of delivery, because the taller mid-size earns its place the moment bags need to close.

How many will you get through?

Rough arithmetic, because nobody publishes this either. Take your takeout and delivery covers per day, not total covers. Multiply by roughly 1.1 - some orders take two bags. That is your daily bag count.

A restaurant doing 60 takeout orders a day is using around 66 bags daily, about 2,000 a month. That is eight cases of 250 a month, or a case every four days.

Two things follow from that. First, order in multiples rather than singles - freight on bulk paper scales with the number of cartons, so consolidated orders are meaningfully cheaper per case. Second, keep a fortnight of cover in stock. Running out of takeout bags on a Friday night is a genuinely bad evening.

A note on food contact

Our takeout bags are built to carry packaged food: the food travels in its own container or wrapper, and the bag carries the containers. They are not intended for unwrapped food placed directly against the paper. Any bag being used for direct food contact should carry documentation specific to that use - ask your supplier for it rather than assuming.

Grease, weight and handles

Kraft paper is strong in tension and weak once wet. Two practical consequences:

Grease is the enemy. A leaking container will wick through a paper base over about twenty minutes, which is roughly the length of a delivery. Line the base with a sheet or a napkin for anything likely to leak.

Weight is about the handles, not the paper. The base of a well-made bag will carry far more than the handles will. Reinforced twisted paper handles - what we use - are attached across a patch rather than at two points, which spreads the load. Bags fail at the handle attachment before they fail anywhere else, so if you are consistently loading heavy, size up rather than double-bagging.

Browse the full takeout range, or email chris@boaztradinggroup.com with what you are packing and we will tell you which size fits.