Whit's Frozen Custard of Hilliard — Restaurant in Norwich Township

I had an incredibly frustrating and absurd experience at Witt’s that left me completely baffled. One evening, about an hour before closing, I stopped by with my girlfriend, as we often do, to get some ice cream. I also got a pupcone for my puppy, who was with us.

At the time, I was testing out my new GoPro camera. It wasn’t mounted to anything—just being carried in my hand, no different than if I had been holding a iphone. I was simply taking some pictures of my dog, nothing more. The only pictures taken were OF MY DOG EATING ICE CREAM. We ordered, paid, I left a generous tip as always, and went on our way without incident.

The next day, I got a call from the police. Apparently, the employee working that night felt uncomfortable and reported that I could have possibly been taking pictures of someone or doing something suspicious. The officers wanted to question me about the “nature” of my photography.

This is an ice cream shop. People take pictures of their ice cream, their friends, their pets—it’s completely normal. Had I been holding an iPhone instead of a GoPro, I guarantee no one would have batted an eye. But because I had a different type of camera, this employee jumped to conclusions and created a completely unnecessary issue. Typical Brian Rot gen z behavior.

When I asked why I was singled out, I was told it was “late at night” and the worker “felt unsafe.” How is that my fault? I was literally just eating ice cream late at night. That is a staffing and management issue, not a customer issue. If your employees feel unsafe being there late, then it’s up to the management to provide a safer work environment—not to shift blame onto an innocent customer and involve the police over absolutely nothing.

The fact that Witt’s management allowed this ridiculous situation to escalate is beyond unacceptable. Instead of addressing their own staffing decisions, they let an employee’s unfounded paranoia turn into a police matter. That level of incompetence is shameful.

I will never spend another dime at this establishment. Avoid at all costs. The owners and managers clearly have no...

UPDATE After placing my review, Whit's management reached out. They explained that the interaction was NOT acceptable to them and they offered a refund of our purchase and committed to training the individual (2 days on the job and probably frazzled on a busy day). I messed up sending the receipts to them via email but rather than put the ball back in my court, the manager researched transactions based on my description and found the receipts in their system. They refunded the order, included some coupons, and had my cash waiting for pickup. The service from the manager was committed and genuine and while it would have been better if someone could have dealt with this the day of, my hope in Whits is certainly restored.

ORIGINAL ISSUE PRIOR TO MGMT REACHING OUT

My family went to get ice cream and had about the worst experience we have ever had at an ice cream shop. We have been to Handel's, Cold Stone, Graeter's, Jeni's, Johnson's, etc. We have seen a variety of setups and this was homey and decently appointed inside. The service was the real tragedy as they were understaffed, typical these days, but the problem was they did not care about their customers. My mother wanted a chocolate malt and we ordered a milkshake with malt (not realizing that a chocolate malt was not the default) and they gave us a vanilla milkshake with malt. My wife picked it up and realized it was wrong and when she told them they refused to remake it. My mother had to buy a full second milkshake and then it had barely recognizable amount of malt. Honestly a rookie mistake and very disappointing. My daughter asked for a speciality sundae Caramel Praline Pecan and she got pecans and chocolate with no butterscotch or caramel. After the debacle with the malt we did not bother asking for it to be fixed because Whits does not care about their service or quality of order taking. For selling a product that is full on luxury in the times we live in today you should take your hard earned money some place. If this was bad employees or bad policy I can't say but it's not...

Whit's is definitely the best in the Columbus area, better than Graeter's by far, in my opinion. This location is super cute with its inside "small-town feel" shop and outside patio area. Fits right in the neighborhood!

Major kudos that this location does scoopable vegan ice cream, so any item from the menu can be made with non-dairy ice cream! They also stock dairy milk alternatives, so that you can get a milkshake made 100% non-dairy. This is HUGE and I'm surprised that more of the reviews don't mention this, because so many people are now avoiding dairy - and Cbus has a giant gap in the market for non-dairy treats.

We moved to the Westerville area, yet I will continue to make the drive back to this location since it offers something for my husband (who eats dairy) and for me too. The Westerville and Gahanna Whit's do not offer scoopable vegan...