[Hai Lights] 15 of Shanghai's Best Ice Cream Sandwiches

Hai Lights is your shortcut through the chaos. Shanghai's PACKED with choices – restaurants, bars, galleries, bike routes, football clubs, hot pot joints, pizza spots, pasta dens, weird little shops selling weirder little things. We cut through the noise to curate only the best. Each list hits a theme – Spanish restaurants that don't suck, places to pretend you're into cycling, clubs where people actually play football (not just wear the jerseys), and whatever else makes this city tick.

August 2nd is first celebrated as US National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, a tip of the hat to this beloved dessert that has become a staple of summer across the globe. The ice cream sandwich's journey began in the bustling streets of New York City, where vendors offered them alongside other iconic American street foods, such as hot dogs and milkshakes, establishing a cherished summer tradition.

However, the ice cream sandwich isn't unique to the United States. Countries like Singapore, Ireland, Australia, Israel, Uruguay, and Iran each have their own delightful variations. For instance, in Vietnam, you can find the bánh mì kẹp kem, a street snack featuring ice cream smooshed between two slices of soft bread, or in Iran, there's bastani-e nooni, a unique saffron and rosewater ice cream coated in crushed pistachios, served between delicate wafers. This global diversity shows just how much the concept of an ice cream sandwich has evolved and expanded over time. (Along with our waistlines.)

In cities like Shanghai, the frozen dessert scene is thriving, boasting an impressive array of gelato, ice cream, and soft serve options. From standout local favorites like Dal Cuore, Luneurs, and Gracie's to well-known chains such as Dairy Queen, Zakuzaku, Venchi, and even Dippin' Dots, there's no shortage of delicious ways to cool off in the summer heat.

For those looking to indulge further, the idea of enclosing ice cream within another sweet treat opens up a world of decadent possibilities. We explored Shanghai's ice cream sandwich offerings to uncover the best combinations available, promising a truly indulgent frozen experience.

1) Cantina Agave – Ice Cream Sandwich (50 yuan)

Like a frothy mug of horchata meets a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch – emphasis on the crunch – Cantina Agave's Ice Cream Sandwich (50 yuan) is what Mexican dessert dreams are made of.

Three bountiful scoops of vanilla ice cream are sandwiched between crispy churro pinwheels, sprinkled with enough cinnamon and sugar to turn a classroom full of seven-year-olds into a Full Moon Party-esque rave.

As your mouth moves toward the center, the ice cream squeezes between the churros' ridges, filling every nook and cranny, creating mini pools of sugary goo.

While the churro "cookies" are crunchier than expected, we do tip our hats to the Cantina Agave team for creating the most structurally sound ice cream sandwich on this list.

We snapped photos of it in the raging Shanghai summer heat, and even while taking our sweet time savoring every last cinnamon-y crumb, it stayed entirely intact.

A testament to the churros' sugar-coated sturdiness.

If you go...

Cantina Agave, 291 Fumin Lu, by Changle Lu 富民路291号, 近长乐路

2) CookieYak! – Ice Cream Sandwich (28-36 yuan)

Internet-famous cookie and ice cream mainstay CookieYak! focuses on creative one-of-a-kind decorated butter cookies, ice cream, and – you guessed it – Ice Cream Sandwiches (28-32 yuan) that combine the two signature items into one.

Here, patrons can DIY their own ice cream sandwich flavor combos, selecting between the classic butter cookie base or the chocolate butter cookie, and adding any ice cream flavor of their choosing. Select from classics – like chocolate, mint chocolate, matcha, and pistachio – to creative – like waxberry & yogurt, rose milk, panettone, and black glutinous rice. Associated toppings, such as nuts, sprinkles, chocolate crunch balls, or freeze-dried strawberries, can also be added. Appealing to the local palate, the cookies are crumbly without being sweet, allowing the ice cream flavors to shine.

Upgrade your ice cream sandwich to a designed cookie of your choosing for an extra 18 yuan. Come for the cookies, gelato, and creative confectionery, stay for the sugar high.

CookieYak!, 162 Shanxi Rd S., 陕西南路162号

3) Dip in Gelato – Gelato Bingo (28 yuan)

Dip in Gelato is a small gelateria that shares a space on Weihai Rd with a local chocolate brand. The store offers a variety of unconventional gelato flavors like yuzumisu, red guava and bergamot, clementine jasmine, mezcal & nutmeg, rooibos tea, and the list goes on.

Equally out there, they serve some pre-packaged creative ice cream sandwiches, playfully dubbed Gelato Bingo, in funky flavor combinations that utilize their ice cream, like the Apricot Luck Bingo (28 yuan) – with apricot gelato, brie cheese ice cream, rum raisins, and lemon white chocolate, or the Hazelnut Bingo (28 yuan) – with caramel cookie ice cream, hazelnut ice cream, caramel cookie crumbs, and dark chocolate coating.

We opted for a seasonal flavor, the Thai Cocoa Tea & Smoked Chili Mango Ice Cream Sandwich (28 yuan). Nestled inside a half white chocolate-covered butter biscuit sandwich is a thick smear of smoked chili mango sorbet below another equally generous spread of cocoa-infused Thai tea ice cream. The square cookie sandwich is eccentric to say the least and downright avant-garde to say the most, yet tasty nonetheless. With so many flavors going on at once, the Thai tea flavor does get a bit lost in the fray, but it lends a milky component that tempers the tart mango and subtle chili.

Dip in Gelato, 644 Weihai Rd, 威海路644号

4) Doiceful – Ice Cream Sandwich (45 yuan)

Shanghai's newest and tastiest artisanal ice cream brand, Doiceful, opened in Xintiandi last year. The more than a dozen ice cream flavors on offer spotlight the best ingredients available in China, like A2 dairy, Tahitian vanilla, and Valrhona chocolate, crafted to emulate American-style ice creameries. Visitors will also find a rotating selection of seasonal flavors featuring local ingredients like Longjing tea, red date with walnut, and pineapple salted egg yolk, to name a few.

Aside from the gelato, Doiceful also offers an in-house-made biscuit cookie Ice Cream Sandwich (45 yuan). The crispy cookies are studded with Valrhona dark chocolate pieces and toasted hazelnuts, while the generous ice cream scoops inside (the size of 1.5 servings!) are available in rich vanilla bean or creamy dark chocolate. The combination of the two evokes a nostalgic feeling of enjoying freshly baked cookies dunked in milk, as the quality of the dairy is notably high. As the ice cream sandwiches are pre-packaged, they can also be delivered anywhere in downtown Shanghai and last up to 2 hours without melting as they are packed with dry ice.

If you go...

Doiceful, Room 102A, 202 Hubin Lu, 湖滨路202号102A室

5) Family Mart – Dongbei Daban Ice Cream Sandwich (6 yuan)

Dongbei Daban is one of China's most widely distributed ice cream bar brands, easily recognizable for its retro packaging that can be spotted in every Family Mart freezer.

The original Dongbei Daban ice cream bar is just a thick rectangular slab of milk-flavored ice cream. Simple, yet delicious, and sold for around 4 yuan.

For an extra couple of yuan, they throw on two graham-flavored cookies that soften like shortbread and taste exactly how you would expect a store-bought ice cream sandwich to taste – a delectable walk further down memory lane with every saccharine mouthful.

High in the bang-for-your-buck category, we give the Dongbei Daban Ice Cream Sandwich (6 yuan) two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Family Mart, Everywhere

6) FOTY – Milk Ice Cream & Kouign-Amann (48 yuan)

Standing for "From Oven to You," FOTY is a bakery backed by Luneurs dishing out one thing and one thing only – freshly baked Kouign-Amann (28 yuan), the croissant's buttery cousin, in all manner of varieties. We can't emphasize the freshly baked part enough. Batches of these treats are pumped out of the ovens every 20 minutes, so from the time you order to when it invariably ends up in your hands, they will still be warm.

The summer special involves a generous scoop of milk ice cream atop the aforementioned kouign-amann, so that the former gradually melts in the latter, silky smooth and cold, juxtaposed against a delicately flaky, warm crust.

The kouign-amann itself is notably brittle, with the sugar and butter concoction hardening quickly into a glass-like glaze. A final spritz of sugar water in the last 15 seconds of baking ensures the crackliest veneer.

Like an open-faced sandwich when first presented, we suggest skipping the provided knife and fork altogether (who cuts ice cream anyway?) and folding the pastry like a taco shell, ensuring the utmost temperature and textural contrast in each binge-worthy bite.

FOTY, Room A103, 1107 Yuyuan Rd, by Jiangsu Rd, 愚园路1107号A103室, 近江苏路

7) Gelato Dal Cuore – Brioche con Gelato (48 yuan)

Gelato Dal Cuore's gelato flavors are a labor of love, with Italy-trained Gelato Chef Gerard Low focusing on sourcing the highest quality ingredients that result in the ideal balance of flavor and texture.

Supported by their die-hard fan base, the six shops around town plus delivery cover a radius that encompasses nearly the entire city, keeping Shanghai's sugar addicts covered with cooling desserts all summer long.

Aside from the lineup of 14 rotating flavors – like Tahitian Vanilla, Mascarpone & Figs, Lychee Rose, Coconut Pandan, and Black Sesame (pictured above) – that can be served in a cone or cup, our favorite way to enjoy this creamy treat is as the Italians prefer it: nestled inside a toasted brioche bun as the Brioche con Gelato (48 yuan), a plush bready base encircling two behemoth scoops of the flavor of your choosing (or, hell, with so many fun flavors, mix and match!)

Gelato Dal Cuore, 600 Shaanxi Rd N., by Xinzha Rd, 陕西北路600号, 近新闸路

8) Grumpy Dog – Taipei Coconut Ice Cream Burrito (22 yuan)

Grumpy Dog is a fast, casual Taiwanese joint on Xiangyang Rd doling out – you guessed it – all things hot dogs for 48-58 yuan a pop – or, in this case, a pup.

As the owners are Taiwanese, a few Taipei street snacks make a showing, like the lip-smacking Taipei Coconut Ice Cream Burrito (22 yuan) with two scoops of coconut ice cream, sweet crushed peanut crumble, and cilantro served atop a rice paper wrap. Diners can enjoy it as is, or do as the Taiwanese night market stalls do, and fold it up like a burrito for a transportable, handheld sweet treat. The ideal size for one, this ice cream wrap makes for the ideal sugary finish to any meal.

Grumpy Dog, 261 Xiangyang Rd, 襄阳路261号

9) Khiri Thai Tea

Shanghai's newest wanghong Thai tea and dessert shop, Khiri Thai Tea, deserves all the hype and then some. With a menu chock-full of creative Thai inspired bevvies and confectionaries – like Thai Milk Tea Slush (26 yuan) with cheese cream and coconut crispy rolls, Thai Milk Tea topped with Black Sesame Cream (26 yuan), Thai Tea Dirty (22 yuan) with a shot of espresso, and Thai Tea Egg Tarts (16 yuan) – it's no shocker that we've been back several times in the span of just a week.

In addition to stellar sugar-packed sippers and sweet treats, one of the most underrated menu items, in our humble opinion, is the Toasted Bread Thai Milk Ice Cream Toffee (29 yuan), a decadent ice cream sandwich of sorts in a serving size befitting a family of four. This behemoth sees a monster-sized scoop of dense Thai tea-flavored ice cream sandwiched between two toasted brioche buns, drizzled in sticky toffee sauce, and sprinkled with coconut flakes. The bread itself is modestly sweetened and feathery with a welcomed toasted crunch. It remains structurally sound yet soaks up some of the melting ice cream, a bite worth throwing your diet in the trash for.

Khiri Thai Tea, 1089 Xikang Rd, 西康路1089号

10) The Kitchen Table, W Shanghai – The Bund – Candy Profiterole Ice Cream Sandwich (98 yuan)

A trio of premium Italian gelato-stuffed profiteroles is served atop a glass candy tray at W Shanghai – The Bund's The Kitchen Table, available on the newly launched summer menu as the Candy Profiterole Ice Cream Sandwich (98 yuan).

Like a dismantled slab of Neapolitan ice cream, the correspondingly flavored home-baked profiteroles encase Valrhona 58 percent dark chocolate gelato, strawberry gelato, and tart yogurt gelato, respectively.

Our only gripe is the unavoidable ice cream avalanche as the profiterole's flimsy, puffed exterior is no match for the dense gelato, making them wholly unshareable.

So, while there are three to choose from, you really have to pick your poison.

(Our suggestion is death by chocolate. Forever and always.)

The Kitchen Table, 66 Lvshun Rd, 旅顺路66号

11) Lawson – Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich (12.6 yuan)

Childhood sentimentality in a plastic wrapper is the best way to sum up Lawson's Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich (12.60 yuan) – cookies and cream ice cream cushioned between two crumbly cocoa circles that may or may not be knock-off labeled Oreos.

Whatever, it's China; we're used to it.

Is the ice cream on the icy side compared to others on our list? Yes.

Is the Oreo a bit too squishy, resulting in no textural contrast? Yes.

Would we repeat purchasing it? Again and again, without question.

Lawson, Everywhere

12) Luneurs – Moon Bun (30 yuan)

Luneurs opened its 13th location in Shanghai (and first location in Jing'an) earlier this year, in Reel Mall, expanding its empire. Like other Luneurs locations, there are ample pastries and ice cream, including their new signature grab-and-go sweet treat, the Moon Bun (30 yuan).

While there are warm and/or savory options, like ham, egg, and cheese or sweet potato and mochi, we are here for the refreshingly chilly ice cream sandwich, an ice cream-filled hamburger bun of sorts.

First, the bun center is hollowed out and filled with a round scoop of the diner's choice of ice cream, of which there are half a dozen flavors (like pistachio, strawberry, dark chocolate, salted caramel, mango passion fruit, and more). After the top bun is placed over the scoop, it's smooshed together in a panini-like press, simultaneously toasting and sealing the bread edges.

The corrugated pattern results in an outer crackle, while the inside of the bread remains pillowy, soaking up the ice cream as it melts for a mouthfeel similar to bread pudding. Pleasantly portable, this ice cream pocket makes for the ideal on-the-go treat, rivaling the popsicle for its convenience.

Luneurs, 1D, Reel Mall, 1601 Nanjing Rd W, 南京西路1601号1D室

13) RAC Allée – Ice Cream Mini Buns (65 yuan/2 pieces)

Whisk away to the Mediterranean with RAC II's take on brioche con gelato, a Sicilian breakfast that we can totally get on board with.

For the Ice Cream Mini Buns (65 yuan/2 pieces), choose between seasonal flavors like strawberry, salted caramel, rum raisin, vanilla, or yogurt and receive two of the richest, creamiest homemade scoops of ice cream found around town placed atop a plush, toasted brioche pocket.

The crisp inner edge lends a necessary contrast, bringing to mind the naughtiest breakfast toast with cold (ice cream) 'butter' ever imagined.

RAC Allée, #301, 319 Jiaozhou Rd, by Wuding Rd, 胶州路319弄301号, 近武定路

14) Strictly Cookies – Ice Cream Sandwiches (40 yuan)

Whether you've lived in Shanghai for one year or 10, Strictly Cookies is the immediate choice that comes to mind for the ideal cookie, and for good reason; owner Lexie Comstock started the company as a passion project, and it has evolved into so much more than that.

After the COVID madness, the brand was taken over by Spread The Bagel x CinnaSwirl, continuing to bring Shanghai's favorite cookie to the dessert-loving masses.

The Ice Cream Sandwiches (40-45 yuan) come in rotating flavor combos (currently it's Tiramisu and Raspberry, but that's set to change in the coming week), plus classics like Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich (vanilla ice cream frozen between two decadent chocolate chip cookies) and Mint Chocolate Chip.

Although the ratio of cookie to cream skews more towards cookie (rightfully so when you make the best cookies in Shanghai), out of all of the ice cream sandwiches we tried, this is the one calling our name for a repeat purchase.

As well as the Strictly Cookies storefront location, every flavor is available for delivery through the Strictly Cookies WeChat store.

Strictly Cookies, Room 103, Lane 1166, Yan'an Rd W., by Panyu Rd, 延安西路1166弄103室, 近番禺路

15) Yangmei Shichang 杨梅市场 – Coriander Ice Cream Roll (22 yuan)

Yangmei Shichang 杨梅市场 is a Taiwanese bistro on Xiangyang Rd S. offering fusion Taiwanese sharing plates for both lunch and dinner.

Many of the offerings include Taiwanese street food, like the Coriander Ice Cream Roll (22 yuan), a Taipei night market staple that seems to be having its moment in Shanghai these days. More of a wrap than a sandwich, per se, we are making the executive decision to include this (and the similar offering at Grumpy Dog mentioned above) on our list for its handheld accessibility.

Three scoops of neutral milk-flavored ice cream are placed in the center of a circular flour crepe. A thick smear of sweetened yam paste (芋泥) – regularly used for desserts in Chaozhou cuisine – lends an additional layer of creaminess, while a sprinkling of crushed peanut brittle adds a salty crunch.

Finally, the requisite fistful of cilantro bumps up the aroma, all folded and rolled into a hands-friendly dessert burrito-meets-spring roll.

Yangmei Shichang 杨梅市场, 284 Xiangyang Rd S., by Yongkang Rd, 襄阳南路284号, 近永康路