IMO Chip Cookies > Crumbl Cookies
I bought into the rave of Crumbl Cookies a while back as I tried several flavors. I absolutely loved the concept because the flavors switched each week with exception of their chocolate chip staple, but the cookies mostly ended up tasting very similar to me. There was that flour-y semi-chalky flavor and texture that made them not so cravable. Though beautiful, I’ve stopped going to Crumbl after a couple visits.
Other Cookie Shops
The Crumbl I went to was the Concord, CA location (and tried them again at a SoCal location with a friend, but we both didn’t like them lol), and several months ago, a Butter Pecan Bakeshop opened in Pleasant Hill area. Their cookies were too different to really compare with Crumbl, but I loved them a lot more. Anyways, I recently heard of Chip Cookies via Yelp and a location in Walnut Creek / Concord opened up, so I had to go try them out! The photos I’ve seen were very similar to Crumbl (which one came first?? I did not do my research), so it’s more of a fair comparison since the cookie looks and styles are more one to one than Butter Pecan Bakeshop (thinner cookies, more of the Insomnia Cookies style).
Chip Cookies Shop
lol it just looks higher tier. The color scheme and shop layout is a bit more intimidating and there is more interaction involved in comparison to Crumbl. There are no (at least not yet) kiosks to place an order as you had to talk to someone to place your order. The design was a lot more sleek. Very fancy! Reminded me a bit of Sugarfina, but completely different colors.
More Customizations
Ok, I admit that I’m more of a basic cookies person. I really dislike all that frosting stuff so Crumbl isn’t my thing on top of the overall flavor/textures. Chip Cookies has some more thick basic cookies without frosting, such as chocolate chip, biscoff, chocolate sea salt, cocoa, and butter cookie when I was there. They also have some frosted ones, such as a cinnamon churro and a sugar cookie. Can I get those unfrosted though? Wished I asked, but they are pricey so I took the frosting lol. In addition to their selections (yes, they are also on display), they have a toppings bar where you can customize by adding frostings (think Nutella, vanilla, etc.) and toppings (such as cookies n creme chunks and such) for a dollar more. Cool and fun concept, but not for me.
Box/Size Selections
They do single cookies for around $5 I believe. So much for a single cookie, but some of them are thick! They also have box of 4 and box of 12, which should be better deals than buying each cookie individually.
My Box of 4
I chose to get a box of 4 so that I can try different ones. My selections included the chocolate chip, sugar cookie, cinnamon churro (forgot if that’s what it was, but it was like a snickerdoodle with frosting with cinnamon), and biscoff (I asked if they liked biscoff or cocoa more and they said biscoff since it has the cookie butter in there). Paid around $20 and left.
First Impressions re Taste
I dug into the chocolate chip one first, and it was surprisingly warm! Soft, buttery, a tad greasy. It was great though. Not overly sweet. I left half a cookie and ate it 2 days later and funny enough, I enjoyed it more then. It wasn’t greasy anymore and the taste, texture, etc. was just amazing. Wished I got more of those! The biscoff cookie was good, but I wasn’t really a fan of the white chocolate chips or something. The sugar cookie had cream cheese frosting, which was just OK, but the cookie itself was great. That cookie and the cinnamon one were thinner cookies as they had frosting, but I really liked the cinnamon one since it reminded me of a snickerdoodle.
Would I go Back?
Hells yes! Chip Cookies isn’t that close to me, so it wouldn’t be a thing I’d go to often, but if I were in that area or plaza to get lunch or something (burger lounge most likely), I’d definitely stop by for a chocolate chip cookie, day old cookies, or to try something new. They have many other locations apparently, including some by the beach cities in SoCal. Exciting!
