Bubba’s Shaved Ice Snoballs

I love this place. As s matter of fact, I’ve already been there 5 times this summer. Can’t speak for the other flavors, but Plum is awesome. This isn’t like the sno cones you get that are hard as a rock and end up having all of the flavor soak out. They use lots of syrup and the ice doesn’t clump up.

Like Bryant said, these would be a solid 3 stars at best if they weren’t the only game in town. Real New Orleans-​style shaved ice should be fluffy and melt in your mouth. They shouldn’t be at all crunchy, and Bubba’s ice is fine but still on the crunchy side.
But are these better than the gravelly ones that you get at fairs and stuff, that feel like someone crushed the ice with a broken hammer? ABSO-​FREAKING-​LUTELY!
Bubba has a giant menu that boasts over 100 flavors. All 100 seem to be artificially flavored/​tinted, so if that’s a non-​starter for you, this isn’t going to be your place. Prices range from $ 3 — $ 5, with the medium being a little too much sugar for me personally to have in one sitting.
I got two flavors in mine – strawberry and margarita – and. .. the boys working the booth did a weird thing. You know how you get a snow cone and they put the flavors side by side? Dude put mine one on top of the other. so the top half was strawberry and the bottom half was strawberry-​margarita. So you might want to specify if you don’t want to blend the flavors. I have no idea what the margarita half tasted like, because it all tasted like strawberry.
They have sweetened condensed milk to put on top, too. I didn’t get it this time but next time, maybe!
And yeah, I’m totally going back. Snow cones don’t seem to be much the culture around here, so it’s probably bizarre to Columbus natives that we went to so much trouble to find a snow cone shack – but summer isn’t summer in the south without one. PS, if anybody opened up a snow cone shack or cart in town with natural syrups I would be there ALL. THE. TIME.

Wait for it… wait for it… there IS a place to get snow cones in Columbus!
After searching high and low for the past decade, this southern transplant finally got his fix — thanks to some research by Susie R. Bubba’s is really off the radar. They never update Facebook, aren’t listed on any social media site or review site, and they don’t even have an address. Yeah, this trip took perseverance.
I called Bubba’s and spoke to the owner, and he gave me the scoop:
–Yes, they’re really a business.
–They’re only open seasonally… and not when it rains.
–They have another location in Lithopolis (is that really a place?).
Susie and I headed over today to see if this unicorn really existed… and lucky for us, it does! This is seriously just a little shack in the middle of a parking lot in Grove City.
Here are a few things to note:
–They only take cash.
–They might be closed on a whim.
–There is nowhere really to sit.
Bubba’s claims to be «New Orleans”-style snow cones, but they don’t quite hit the mark for that ballsy claim. A true Southern snow cone is super soft — not these icy crappy ones I find at festivals in Ohio. Bubba’s snow cones are soft, but not quite like back home.
If I were in Louisiana, I would give this place 3 stars. But since it’s the ONLY FREAKING PLACE near Columbus, I’m bumping it up a star. The snow cones are good, but not the best I’ve ever had. The flavors are all artificially flavored and colored, which is not usually my thing — but again, it’s the only place in town.
But here’s the real test — would I make the drive back to GC for another snow cone? Absolutely.