Tar Heel Creamery

I don’t think this place exists or it moved to a new location. Google map location incorrect.

They have sorbet and ice cream. I sampled the NC berry and really liked it, so I got NC berry in a small cup. The ice cream is good! I had Kilwins for lunch and Tar Heel Creamery for dinner, and I loved both. Each place offers different flavors. The berry was very creamy without melting fast. Keep in mind it’s cash only!

Delicious! My fiancé and I love this ice cream. Best ice cream in Wilmington! Cash only though.

We went here ¾ nights while vacationing in Wilmington, service was great and the ice cream was awesome!!!

My goodness YES! We walked in for the first time on Thursday night and all the ice cream options they had available contained wheat (which I can’t eat). The girl behind the counter said if we could wait 10 mins, the owner was on his way with more ice cream. We’re so glad we waited! I had the most delicious Bourbon Caramel ice cream! My husband and son equally enjoyed their choices! We learned that all the ice cream is made locally, using as many locally sourced ingredients as they can. The result is a creamy, rich, delicious ice cream that had us coming back 3 nights in a row while we were in Wilmington! Make sure to bring your cash, they don’t take CC’s — but it’s worth it!

a daily treat!
Amazing HOMEMADE ice cream and the friendliest gals who work there! We visited every day (3!) for our daily dose. Yummy, fun flavors (all quite tasty!) and good serving sizes to satisfy. I can’t pass up homemade and glad I didn’t. Just be sure to have cash as that’s all they take! GO GO GO! :)

I’ve had their ice cream at the fair so I had to get it here too. It is high quality, delicious, clean, pure ice cream. This time around, I got the NC berry. It was delicious – it reminded me of how Breyer’s strawberry used to taste when Breyer’s made real ice cream back in the day.

On one of the main streets of Wilmington (I’m a foreigner to these lands so I have no idea which one, but if you’re there, you’ll know it) we passed this long line out the door of this ice cream place.
Luckily I was with a pair of locals.
They led me right past said line and we waltzed right up to the counter of THC. I tried a few samples and they were very helpful in warning me what ice creams have hidden glutens in it. Luckily the red velvet didn’t. I got a small which was a big scoop of the red velvet, which was rich, creamy and had these heavenly globs of cream cheese frosting hidden within it, and a small scoop of the mint chip. The mint had a very fresh flavor and wasn’t neon green and the little bits of chocolate were perfect.
Skip the lines and just come here people. Or don’t. We can keep this place hidden for ourselves!

The best ice cream I’ve had in North Carolina. Super fresh and creamy, not icy at all. Worth the price for the freshness. Please bring this to Greensboro!

Great ice cream, surly service.
(Although others we know who went at a different time and said the service was great, so may just be the person who was there when we stopped.)
Either way the ice cream is worth it. Apple Pie was my favorite.

A visit six-​months after my first trip to Tar Heel Creamery and not much has changed. They aren’t making waffle cones in house like their tough competitor Kilwins and they’re still a cash only establishment. While Tar Heel has a great base ice cream flavor, I was surprised by how lacking some of the additions were. I ordered a small cone of PB Oreo and Mint ($ 4 for small waffle cone but you get 1.5 scoops and can pick two flavors). The PB Oreo was not chunks of Oreo but rather just ground Oreo with peanut butter mixed in. Not bad but would’ve been better with chunks of Oreo. The Mint had small chunks of chocolate throughout, although in my ½ scoop I had two pieces of chocolate and those tasted like they’d been in the freezer too long. My ice cream loving boyfriend enjoyed the PB Oreo with a scoop of pistachio ice cream and also commented that actual pistachio’s were few and far between in his cone.
With a big competitor around the corner from Tar Heels Creamery, their base ice cream is not going to be enough to set them apart as the winner. I hope they up their game and bring back the ice cream I fell in love with, stocking their ice cream with the best and tastiest morsels.

BETTER THAN KILWINS. Kilwins seems to be the only place people go to get ice cream and downtown Wilmington and has the reputation as the «best ice cream» you can get there. My family was planning on going there, but due to the line out the door, we proceeded to the Tar Heel Creamery. Comparing Kilwins’ coffee ice cream with Tar Heel Creamery’s «Espresso Cookie,» it is obvious Tar Heel Creamery uses real coffee to flavor their ice cream as it tastes MUCH better. Tar Heel Creamery may not have the same reputation as Kilwins due to its younger age, but I encourage you to give it a chance on your next visit to downtown Wilmington.

This place is sort of hidden on Water Street, but the ice cream is great. The prices are in line for what you’d expect, and they have nice rotating selection of flavors.
For this review I have to compare them to Kilwins, and overall I think they may be better. They seem to be a little cheaper, and the ice cream is as good if not better. They appear to be still renovating their space, so it feels a bit like a «hole in the wall». However they don’t have long lines and since they only offer ice cream, shakes, and bottled water ($ 1, not bad) they are efficient. Overall I’d definitely recommend for a quick and delightful cone.

I’m a fan of hard serve, ultra-​premium ice cream, I don’t dare say professional ice cream taster, but connoisseur? perhaps…
I’m from the north where you see ice cream of this quality quite regularly. It’s something I’ve been craving since moving here a few years ago and I feel like I’ve finally found something worthy of calling ice cream at Tar Heel Creamery. Having originally tried their ice cream on the rare occasion of running in to their truck at a downtown event or state fair, I was already a fan. I was pleasantly surprised when I unexpectedly ran in to their new storefront while visiting downtown Wilmington, NC.
Every flavor I’ve had there, including chocolate peanut butter, black raspberry chip, and espresso cookie have all been excellent. Deep rich flavors coupled with some of the most creamy ice cream textures you’re going to find around here. One thing to note is that it’s a cash only shop and a little on the expensive side. But you know what they say, good ice cream isn’t cheap and cheap ice cream isn’t good. Not sure who says that exactly, but you get what I’m saying. It’s worth every penny in my opinion.
One thing I wonder though, why a store in Wilmington? Wouldn’t it make more sense for a store closer to home? Perhaps somewhere near the downtown Raleigh or Durham area first? Is the owner just afraid to fully commit to the ice cream game in the Triangle? Do they not think there is a demand here? Is this enough rhetorical questions?