Jane D.
Yelp
Crumbl was one of the establishments we visited while conducting a "scientific" taste test comparison of chocolate chip cookies (CCCs) on the UWS. (You can see some of our findings under the Chip City review: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chip-city-new-york-7) The subjects of study, as curated by my 12-year old, were CCCs from Chip City, Levain, Crumbl and Insomnia.
TLDR:
Our current rankings:
- Levain / Chip City
- Insomnia
- Crumbl
The Deets:
We prefer our CCCs to be soft, even gooey on the inside (e.g. ideally warm with melty chocolate), with a slightly crisp crust on the outside. And we like them buttery, but not overly sweet. Size was not factored in except insofar as it impacted texture; neither was price.
By these metrics, Crumbl's CCCs were just ok. Like all the other cookies we tried except for Insomnia, Crumbl's CCCs are supersized, about 4 inches in diameter and an inch or 1.5 inches thick. Unlike Chip City and Insomnia CCCs, which came to us warm, Crumbl's was cold and a touch hard all the way through, which resulted in a low score on the soft & gooey scale.
We did love how buttery and fragrant the cookie was, how it was studded through with generous amounts of chocolate. This thing probably would have been amazing right out of the oven! And had we rated all of the cookies we tried cold, Crumbl's probably would be close to Levain in likability and possibly better than Chip City and Insomnia (by our subjective standards, of course).
Pros:
- The staff were working their tails off one one of the busiest days, the day before Thanksgiving. They managed to be friendly and efficient, cool as cucumbers despite the pressure. No weak links that we could see anywhere. Amazing.
Cons:
- The amount of superfluous waste this business generates is heartbreaking for anyone concerned about the environment. Levain and Insomnia both asked us whether we preferred a paper sleeve or a box for our cookies. (We chose the less wasteful sleeve.) Chip City didn't give us a choice, but dumped all our cookies carelessly into the same sleeve. I'm sure the staff thought they were doing customers a kindness by putting all orders in those pretty, waxed cardboard boxes, but we saw so many folks eating their purchases and immediately disposing of those boxes in the garbage, probably too smeary with food to recycle. It would be wonderful for Crumbl to offer purchases on plates or in paper sleeves. I personally resolve to bring my own reusable container next time!
Neither here nor there:
- The small pies we ordered alongside our cookies were enjoyable confections, homey and similar to what a southern or midwestern family might make for a church picnic. The Oreo cookie pie definitely evoked something nostalgic in me, but don't expect confections as elevated as what you might purchase at a Dominique Ansel or Mille-Fuielle.
I'll be back try the cookies again after my next marathon*.
*Just kidding, I don't run marathons. After my self control degrades sufficiently, I mean.