Get us in your inbox

Search
ice cream sandwich at Ruby Violet
© Danielle Woods

The best ice-cream sandwiches in London

Forget your typical bread and butter; these sandwiches place ice cream between dreamy layers of cookie, cake and the like. Grab a spoon or get sticky

Written by
Time Out London Food & Drink
Advertising

There was a time when ice cream sandwiches weren't really a London thing. If you wanted to get yourself some goopy frozen milk squashed between two chunky cookies, you'd either have to book a flight to America or get creative with some Marylands and a tub of Ben & Jerries. Things have changed. London is now full of spaces where you can get yourself a top dollar ice cream hand snack. The frozen treats have made an icy impact on London’s best ice-cream parlours, restaurants and cafes, with options now ranging from ice cream inside deep fried bread to ice cream inside a macaron to ice cream squished between two very large biscuits. And, if you've got a (very) sweet tooth, they're the stuff of dreams. Here are our favourite swoon- (and occasionally spoon-) worthy ice-cream sandwiches.

Ice-cream sandwiches in London

Fried Horlicks ice cream at Bao
  • Restaurants
  • Taiwanese
  • Soho
  • price 1 of 4

Bao had already got our attention with its cute savoury Taiwanese buns, but how about this for a sugary twist: a deep-fried version of the soft doughy wonders filled with malty Horlicks ice cream. Sweet dreams are made of this.

Honeycomb and Pine Nut with Pistachio-Coconut Wafer Cookies at Black Milq
  • Restaurants
  • Ice-cream parlours
  • Bethnal Green

You don’t need dairy to make delicious ice cream – and live-wire specialist Natalie Slack proves the point with this vegan outfit now housed in Containerville in E2. Her classic sandwich sees a scoop of plant-based honeycomb and pine nut ice cream between two pistachio-coconut cookies, but also check out her new ‘whoopie’ version (double chocolate cake/cookie with pumpkin-seed ice cream).

Advertising
Any of the sandwiches at Chin Chin Dessert Club
  • Restaurants
  • Ice-cream parlours
  • Soho

There are two branches of Chin Chin in town, but the biggest range of ice-cream sarnies is at the Dessert Club in Soho. We like their Choux Bun Sandwich – it’s topped with crunchy biscuit and stuffed with, say, burnt-butter caramel or pandan-leaf ice cream, before being pumped with Chin Chin’s signature cream made from olive oil. Phew.

The Naughty One at Happy Endings
  • Restaurants
  • Ice-cream parlours
  • Spitalfields

Salted caramel and miso parfait come squished between fine layers of chocolate stout cake in The Naughty One – a rich, salty, creamy and umami number that has a lot going on. Happy Endings started making ice-cream sarnies back in 2014, but if you want to sample their bad-boy creations, you’ll need to visit one of the venues they supply: Breddos, Tonkotsu and Honest Burgers are on the list, but check their website for a full line-up.

Advertising
Bilog at Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream
  • Restaurants
  • Ice-cream parlours
  • Camden Town

Mamasons peddles the kind of ‘dirty ice creams’ you’ll find on the streets of Manila and they also serve ‘bilog’ – a hot ice-cream sandwich in a toasted pandesal (milk bun). For your chosen filling, try the signature ‘ube’ (made from a native purple yam) or the goth-tastic ‘black buko’ (coconut combined with activated charcoal derived from coconut shells). There’s an offshoot in Chinatown.

  • Restaurants
  • Ice-cream parlours
  • Tufnell Park

This Tufnell Park parlour makes its inventive ice creams even more special by wedging them between freshly baked cookies. Combinations depend on what’s been churned that week, but look out for ‘Francesca’s frisky rhubarb’, ‘Gianina’s gorgeous gingerbread’ or Tufnell Park honey and honeycomb – perhaps sandwiched between oatmeal and raisin cookies. There’s also a branch in King’s Cross.

Advertising
Macaron ice-cream sandwiches from Yolkin
  • Restaurants
  • Vietnamese
  • Soho

We’re not yolkin’… Vietnamese-born genius baker Sammie Le’s small ice-cream shop in Soho has a whopping 40k followers on Instagram – and climbing. You can see why – her pretty macaron ice sarnies come in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of flavours, often with a southeast Asian vibe – think condensed-milk tea, pandan coconut, matcha oreo, egg tart or taro and cornflake.

Find more phenomenal ice cream in London

The best ice-cream in London
  • Restaurants
  • Ice-cream parlours

Check out our sticky-fingered guide to the best cold stuff in the capital. These top-notch ice-cream parlours serve unforgettable frozen treats, scoops, ice lollies and ice-cream sandwiches.

Recommended
    You may also like
    You may also like
    Bestselling Time Out offers
      Advertising