In our highly awaited return to food reviewing, we’ve decided to take our skills to a new level: ice cream sandwiches. Perfectly paired creamy ice cream and crunchy cookies make for the best snack, even if it’s 40 degrees outside. So here’s a comprehensive review of the best ice cream sandwiches in the DMV for your mid-winter snacking.

The Baked Bear: 9/10 ($10.50)

Five stops on the Red Line to Pike and Rose got us to the lovely land of The Baked Bear. We had high hopes after stalking their google review pics while waiting for the yet-again late Metro, and they definitely did not disappoint. You can mix and match over ten different types of cookies and brownies with various ice cream flavors. 

Our singular complaint is that the sandwiches are humongous and physically impossible to finish. Truthfully, we don’t think anyone could eat that much ice cream, but this can be easily fixed by sharing with another person. The Baked Bear is essentially the Chipotle of ice cream sandwiches, and we wish that this store was as common as our favorite lunch spot.

Captain Cookie: 6/10 ($8.45)

We arrived at the Cleveland Park Captain Cookie with mixed expectations, some of which were met. We had learned our lesson from The Baked Bear and decided to only buy one ice cream sandwich to share. For being only slightly cheaper (possibly due to the worker giving us a student discount because we “looked young”), this one held a lot less ice cream. 

We were mildly disappointed with the lack of flavors to choose from, both in cookies and ice cream. While the ice cream sandwich itself was pretty good, it just wasn’t as astoundingly amazing as The Baked Bear. 

Insomnia: 8/10 ($8.75)

Now you might be saying, isn’t Insomnia a cookie place? Yes, it is, my friend, which means that the base of this “Cookie’wich” as they call it, is a warm cookie with a complex flavor profile. However, don’t be fooled into thinking the cookie is the only star of the sandwich; the ice cream was exactly as exciting. 

We got a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie with “Peanut Butter Insomniac Tracks” ice cream and it was scrumptious. The cookie is served warm and in a nice to-go container that oddly resembles a pizza box. The only downside to this was that the ice cream sandwich did not fit in the box. But don’t fret; that just made us eat it faster. 

In the process of trying ice cream sandwiches, we realized how annoying it is to get everywhere on the Metro. We are currently in the midst of writing a petition to the DMV because you cannot get a provisional license in DC until you turn 16½ is absolutely criminal. 

We applaud everyone, whether you can drive or not, who is trekking through the freezing cold to go taste these ice cream sandwiches for themselves. 

XOXO – your favorite food reviewers