The Baked Bear

I’ve heard great things about The Baked Bear. I received a BOGO coupon and decided to stop by the Carmel Valley location. The employees greeted me with smiles and asked what kind of cookie and ice cream I wanted. They skipped Step #3 — Toppings and Step #4 — Hot Pressed and asked if I needed To Go containers. I don’t know if they are lazy about asking if you want toppings or if this is a strategy with the BOGO coupons. I asked for the toppings and the answer was «sure we can do that». There did seem to be quite a few flavors of cookies and ice cream, but at Noon on a Sunday many of the ice cream containers were nearly empty. For a new location the employees should also be asking if you have been there before and giving a pitch about how it works.

So glad I made the stop. Definitely worth it. Totally hit the spot. Had to buy more than a dozen.

this is place is pretty dank. I got a scoop of mint chip and a scoop of coffee in a cup. the scoops were pretty big. my g-​friend got a scoop of birthday cake and she told me she ate plastic and pulled it out of her mouth and there you go, it was plastic. Lmao we ain’t the type of people to trip over that stuff though but I’m just putting that here because I mean what is a review? just your personal experience to help other people decide. aside from that though like I said, daaaaaank. Y’all ever notice the name is The Baked Bear? like there’s a The in the name? Then the logo is a bear with shades. Cuhz is high as a balloon let go by a child under those shades. Ayyy

Absolutely delicious. Huge fan of the option to do one side brownie and one side cookie. A review down below by some Scrooge says that the cookies get too hard to eat but it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the temperature of the ice cream is going to make the warm cookies a little stiff… $ 3.50 is a steal for this delicious treat!

My ice cream sandwich: Warm cookies ‘n cream cookie, strawberry ice cream, and a warm chocolate chip cookie. The warm hot combo of cookies and ice cream at Baked Bear went well together.
The sandwich could have been a little bigger (area-​wise). A bit of the ice cream oozed off the sides as I repeatedly bit in. Luckily the ice cream sandwich was in a basket/​container. Unfortunately, the wax paper it spilled onto was nearly impossible to get the ice cream off of… even with a spoon.
And I’m not sure what they can do about this (if anything), but the chocolate in the chocolate chip cookie gets all over your hand as you hold it. Perhaps I wasn’t holding it right.

Okay, I don’t know what the huge hype was about Baked Bear. I went there a couple of times and was not impressed about it. When I got there it took one of the employees awhile to come and help me when I walked in.
The cookies tasted like they were store bought right from the grocery stores bakery and they were very stale when I got mine. The cookie got hard fast and I couldn’t even finish the ice cream sandwich. The ice cream tasted very grainy.
Won’t be coming back here.

Baked Bear is a great addition to Carmel Valley in the new complex with Trader Joes off Del Mar Heights and Carmel Valley Rd! The concept of ice cream sandwich meets Coldstone is perfect for those looking to get a sweet fix with various bases including cookies, cookie bowls, brownies, etc; ice creams and toppings. The place even boasts gluten free cookies and soy vanilla ice cream for those with particular needs. It reminds me of Diddy Riese in LA but with more options. A good new go-​to for dessert or a place to hang in the area!

The Baked Bear! I’ve been here twice and this is conveniently located off of Carmel Valley Rd and Del Mar Heights Rd near the 56 freeway.~
–Satisfy you sweet tooth!
–Cookies, brownies, ice cream sandwiches etc.
–Ability to customize and mix and match
–Okay service
–Smaller seating area inside and a few seats available outside
–Decent selection of ice cream
–Fair pricing
Overall, a neat option for your ice cream sandwich fix :)

Love this place! Always fresh cookies and many flavors to choose from!
Staff could be a little more friendly but eh such is life!

I thought this place was going to be a lot more expensive! I came in here late one evening to just check the place out at about 9:45 PM on a Sunday night and it was still open. Well I was pleasantly surprised. You can get ice cream between your choice of two cookies. You pick your ice cream flavor and then you pick your cookies. You can have the same two cookies or you can have one of each like chocolate chip on one side and snickerdoodle on the other side.
They are good sized soft cookies and they give you a rather large portion of ice cream too. You better be hungry cuz its good enough to share with two people. All for only $ 3.50? Yep! If you go to Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone or a self serve yogurt shop you’re going to pay more than that.
Servers are nice and friendly and they have lots of choices.
For you lactose intolerant folks they have an alternative for you too!
Enjoy!

Sooooo I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m saying this is the best dessert for the $$ in Carmel valley.
I opted for funfetti cookie on one side, red velvet on the other. Threw in butter pecan ice cream and let them know it was to go. They handed me a colorful ice cream sandwich and I hit the road.
I kept staring at the container while I waited for (seemingly) a hundred red lights on the way home. It kept taunting me with its delicious, colorful textures.
I figured I would have dessert first and then eat dinner because the 3 minutes it took me to get home was more than I could take. That thing didn’t stand a chance in front of me. Chewy cookies, smooth yummy ice cream. It was awesome. And all for $ 3.50. I’m kind of nervous that this place is so close to home. I might need a frequent flier card.

this is my sinful heaven… and it doesn’t even break the bank.
Carmel Valley kids and their moms generally hang at swirls… and i totally support that. Swirls is owned by a local carmel valley family… it is in del mar highlands shopping center, which is walkable from our schools… it’s the cool place to hang and has multiple hot happy hour spots in the same center… BUT. baked bear is so much yummier (and cheaper)!!!
i know it seems like i’m comparing apples to oranges… but the comparison is for after school hangouts with kids…
Baked Bear is a little more out of my way (closer to the new schools)…but it’s wonderful!!! and i can do my trader joes shopping in the same swoop. yeah!
fresh hot cookies with ice cream smashed in the middle! it’s definitely a fork eating experience for me (while the kids attempt to pick up their sandwich)
my recent favorite is snickerdoodle cookie with coffee ice cream… my other favorite is sugar cookie with mint ice cream… kids like to get a different cookie on each side… so much room to get crazy here…(and i know what i’m spending when i walk in… not after they put their cup of yogurt on the scale and i’m shelling out $ 16 for 2 yogurts!)
i love you swirls… but baked bear has stolen my heart!

Being a first time customer who has heard great things about it and was extremely excited to try Baked Bear, I was pretty underwhelmed by it.
I went after dinner, and the line wasn’t crazy long. The actual place was very clean and had a good atmosphere to it. My only complaint regarding the actual site is that there wasn’t nearly enough seating inside or outside; when you have dripping ice cream sandwiches, you would want to sit down! A family that was looking for seating even went to the Panera across the street to sit and eat.
We went in, ordered, and got our desserts in a timely manner. I got the donut sandwich with cookie dough ice cream inside. It was overwhelmingly sweet; I couldn’t even finish it! There was barely any ice cream in the sandwich and the donut tasted like I could buy it at any grocery store. Another person in my group got the «cookie of the month» chocolate almost mocha with coffee ice cream in it. Again, the whole sandwich was extremely sweet and I could have made a sandwich like that at home with cookies and ice cream from the grocery store!
We drove out expecting to eat delicious desserts, but since we didn’t receive that, we ended up eating at Panera out of disappointment and to satiate our want for something good to eat. We couldn’t have driven out there for nothing, right?
It possibly was just this location that was lacking, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll visit the PB location to see. But for now, neither I, nor anyone else in my group, will go back to this Baked Bear.

Yummmmmmmm!!! Great addition to the new Pacific Highlands Village plaza!
The line can be long, but it moves quickly. There is seating both indoors and outside and the facility is clean and brand new.
The staff are really friendly, even with a really long line of customers they seem to always have a smile on their face and be eager to make a recommendation or help.
The ice cream sandwiches are SO great! My fave is a brownie and chocolate chip cookie with cookies n cream ice cream with a hot fudge topping. So. Good. And I think that their price point is right on point, $ 4 for an ice cream sandwich with 1 topping seems right to me.
You can order to go also!
We will probably go here way too much since it’s conveniently located in a plaza that we frequent regularly!

Eh I can probably make a better ice cream sandwich at home to be quite honest. Cookies don’t look appetizing at all… bland, thin and totally underwhelming. Not many ice cream flavors to choose from and nothing unique. For a Friday evening it was empty. Service was ok not very enthusiastic seeing that it is a new place in town. I think they will experience some ups and downs in business. Carmel valley peeps are quite healthy conscious but the high school right across the street should keep them in business. I wish them luck but way over hyped for my taste buds!

I feel torn about the Baked Bear. On the one hand, my ice cream sandwich was actually pretty good. I certainly would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy it. Both the red velvet and the cookies and cream cookies that I tried were tasty after being «pressed.» Though, the coffee ice cream that I had was average. The overall package was good and I felt that the service was pretty decent as well, especially since it was near closing when we arrived. On the other hand, if I’m honest with myself, I want ice cream, not an ice cream sandwich. And as I suggested, the ice cream isn’t going to win any prizes on its own. Plus, it’s just a little too pricey for what it is. We paid almost $ 15 for 4 sandwiches?!
I don’t know… I will go back because there is no other great option in the immediate vicinity. However, there is definitely better ice cream in San Diego for more reasonable prices.

I’ve been waiting for the Baked Bear to open this Carmel Valley location for the past couple of months. Although I had never visited their other locations, I had heard great things about it. I always get ice cream with one of the girls that I babysit and I told her about the ice cream sandwiches and she could hardly contain her excitement as it got closer to the opening date. So when I babysat her last night, we made our first trip to the Baked Bear.
We had trouble narrowing down our selection from all the delicious cookies and ice cream. I decided on a cookie sandwich with a chocolate chip and a cookies and cream cookie with cookies and cream ice cream. I highly recommend the cookies and cream cookie. I was told it was cheesecake-​based with oreo cookie crumbles and it was so good! The chocolate chip cookie was good too but the cookies and cream was just different enough to be more exciting. The girl that I babysit got a brownie sandwich with cookies and cream ice cream and mini chocolate chips. She enjoyed it but thought that the brownie got to be too much part way through and she plans to try a cookie sandwich next time. We also didn’t think that the extra topping was worth it because most of the mini chocolate chips fell off as she ate it.
Be sure to grab lots of napkins because the ice cream does start to melt as you eat it and drips down your hand.
At $ 3.25 for the cookie and $ 4.25 for the brownie, the prices were pretty reasonable and comparable to what we usually spend at Swirls.

I’ve been meaning to visit the PB location after seeing The Baked Bear on a «San Diego Must Try» list for their donut ice cream sandwich, but then I found out they were opening up a location closer to my house in Carmel Valley, huzzah! The new location is conveniently located in the new Pacific Highlands Shopping Center right next to Rite Aid, Panera, and Trader Joe’s.
My mom and I attended the grand opening last Friday. We headed there after dinner and I was glad to see the line wasn’t too long out the door. The employees were great at organizing orders and moving the line quickly. I opted for a cookie ice cream sandwich instead of the donut sandwich like I originally intended, reasoning that I should try a classic cookie sandwich and then level up another day.
I sandwiched the Peanut Butter Fudge Ice Cream (reminded me of a reese’s peanut butter cup) between a Chocolate Chip Cookie and a White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie. Asking for it to be cut in half makes it a whole lot easier to eat and share.
Baked Bear is A-​Ok. I’m giving it an extra star since it was founded by local San Diegans. Due to all of the hype, I expected a little bit more. The cookies were fresh (make sure you ask for it hot pressed if you want your cookies to be warm) and the ice cream was decent. Similar to what another Unilocaler mentioned, I was hoping for Diddy Riese quality. I’m not exactly salivating at the prospect of another trip back, but I’d recommend you check it out at least once. Congrats Baked Bear on your new location!

Omg!!! So good. Line was out the door but it moved fast.
Got the donut ice cream sandwich with strawberry ice cream. It was soooooo good. They warm up the donut with ice cream in a waffle maker like device.
Also got lemon bar cookie and birthday cake cookie with strawberry cheesecake ice cream.
Loved the PB location. This place will be dangerous since it’s so much closer.

Was there for the grand opening yesterday. Wasn’t too long of a wait which was surprising because of the amount of people there. Got a cookie sandwich and donut one that I split. It was honestly ok, nothing really to write home about. Maybe it was overhyped for me so I had higher expectations. But I did like the donut ice cream sandwich more than the cookie one.