Review: Diddy Riese, LA’s Best Cookie

Look no further for the perfect cookie.

Perhaps best known among college students starving for its sweet relief from studying, Diddy Riese is a landmark in UCLA’s Westwood. It is one of the first places introduced to newly-accepted freshmen, and rightfully so, as Diddy’s ten varieties of freshly-baked cookies and twelve flavors of Dreyers premium grand ice cream deserve the attention.

Some of the cookie flavors include chocolate chip w/walnuts, white chocolate macadamia nut, peanut butter, double chocolate w/nuts, oatmeal raisin, sugar cinnamon, candy. The ice cream flavors to choose from are just as delicious and include cookie dough, rocky road, mint chocolate chip, butter pecan, strawberry cheesecake chunk, and peanut butter cup, among others. See the full menu here.

The best parts: sinfully cheap prices and late night hours. Ice cream sandwiches – any combo of two cookies and a generous scoop of ice cream smooshed between them – are only $1.50 and a perfect late-night treat. My go-to favorite: oatmeal raisin with espresso chip ice cream.

Other wallet-friendly menu items include all-beef hot dogs for $1.50 (or $2 with a drink), Hawaiian shaved ice for $1 (or $1.50 with ice cream), brownies for $0.45 each, ($5/dozen). Cookies by the dozen are $3.75, but also check out the day-olds, which are about $2.50 and just as squishy and tasty. See the full menu here.

While there is usually always a line (particularly late at night), don’t let it intimidate you. The Diddy employees – a family of Latinos who named the shop after their grandmother – are all-business: polite but efficient, hard-workers, and darn good at making cookies.