E W Hobbs

E W Hobbs is fantastic! I have been going her since before I could walk or talk! My Father grew up just down the street in the late 1930’s and I have always loved the Willows. Especially the salt water taffy from Hobbs. I go every time i’m in Salem and only wish they could ship it to me in Arizona so my Husband could try it too. The popcorn bars and ice cream are also the best ever!

Huge selection in salt water taffy, good prices on all kinds of sweets. Popcorn of all sorts to ice cream. Great place to come when your at Salem willows

Love everything about this place except the radio. Not everyone has the same tastes, so maybe it would be better to turn down the volume if you really have to have it on.

A-​OK is pretty accurate…
Somehow, I was expecting them to have half a billion flavors/​types of popcorn & Ice Cream. Nope. They have a rather limited selection. Maybe I got them on a day when they only had one or maybe two types of popcorn?
Anyways, the prices are reasonable, and the popcorn was good. It was fresh and kettle popped, much better than movie theater or microwave stuff. Corn was lightly buttered, and they had a shaker of delightful spicy salt.
I would have liked to have different seasonings, and an option to add butter yourself (or add some more). Alas, no.
I had grasshopper ice cream. It was good ice cream, but nothing super special. It was similar to a mint chocolate chip you could get from a decent brand in a supermarket.
Don’t get me wrong, if you want good popcorn or ice cream this is a good place to go to, maybe an okay place to travel across town to, but not much further.
Basically, it is if you are in the neighborhood, and want some popcorn.
Staff was nice, but I got the feeling they wanted you to choose, order, and step aside. While I was deciding, or walking nearby (not interfering with other customers) I kept getting asked «can I help you?» Once or twice is okay, but if it happens too much I begin to feel just a bit like they want me gone.

I lived in Salem for a little bit but now I live in CA. When I lived in Salem I came here AT LEAST twice a week to get buttered popcorn. It’s literally the best popcorn I’ve ever had. Living in CA I still have my family send me out bags of popcorn every couple weeks when it’s open. HINT: they still sell popcorn during the winter! They take popcorn orders before Thursdays and you can pick it up at Hobbs on Saturday. Just call the store number! :)

This is just for the salt water taffy. It is very fresh and delicious. The price might look a little steep at first — $ 5.00 for a small box, $ 9.00 for a large. But, they stuff the box to overflowing. You get at least 1 ½ times the amount you think you’ll get.
The woman who helped us was very friendly and gave us a sample of one were weren’t sure we would like (clove).
I haven’t tried anything else. Sweetened popcorn isn’t my thing. I might try the ice cream or roasted nuts next time.
The store is located among funky, old-​timey, seaside arcades. A walk down memory lane, if you’re old enough.

Perhaps my expectations were set too high by the other reviews, but the ice cream was average and the popcorn bars, while new, were not amazing. The best part about the place was the surrounding area. So if you want to get off the beaten path as a tourist, go here, but maybe try the ice cream from some other stand.

I like this place in the arcade for the romantic feel of it — like jersey shore or something, but in Salem.
The ice cream (tried the grasshoppah) is pretty good. Decent selection.
Also tried the popcorn after reading about it in a Boston Globe article. I tried the variety bag — with chocolate, vanilla, and peppermint popcorn. It was TERRIBLE! The popcorn was basically thick, stale sugary crap. It honestly tasted like stale sugar. No hint of popcorn. And I’ve had good flavored popcorn and also quite enjoy sweets. This was just bad.

I would step on kittens just to have one spoonful of his ice cream, yes it was that good!

Oh Hobbs–
How we love you. Hands down the best ice cream in all of Salem & quite possibly the North Shore. I’m a frozen pudding junkie & theirs is to die for.
Their popcorn bars are so incredibly good. Even my 3 year old gives them his seal of approval.

Worst ice cream I ever had! I got a pistachio ice cream that had no pistachios in it!
Also it was the smallest cone I have ever had all for $ 2.50 plus tax. The icing on the cake was hair in the ice cream. Apparently they are not required to wear hair nets.
Save your money don’t go here you’ll be disappointed.

Definitley the best popcorn around, but who cares about popcorn, get their Ice Cream! I LLLLOOOVEEE the Reverse Oreo ice cream, and their Pumpkin is so good with the graham cracker they add to it. The best reason besides the Arcade to go to the Willows.

The reviews are clear. But don’t take our word for it. If you go to Hobbs and get their legendary popcorn you will be stalked by several morbidly obese pigeons. They have already picked the ground clean. They need a fix. NOW
Just look at them. They can barely walk; their beaks are disappearing into their face, but they can’t stop. The rich buttery goodness, the zing of the salt, the crunch.
Whether or not to feed their insatiable appetite is beyond the scope of this review. The choice must be made by you alone.

I got a bag of molasses popcorn. There were chips of molasses candy in the popcorn. Very tasty.
They also sell ice cream and taffy. They had some very interesting ice cream flavors, like coconut chocolate-​chip.
This place is seasonal.

I love the pop corn from this place. It’s been around as long as I can remember.
Delish !!!

Had cookie dough ice cream here on my visit to Salem Willows park. It was delicious! I will have to have it again next time I am here!

The best ice cream, taffy, popcorn, and popcorn bars. You cannot go wrong with any of the popcorn, but I am partial to the colored popcorn. The ice cream is my favorite though — homemade, rich, and creamy. The M&M flavor is my favorite, but again, you cannot go wrong with any of the ice cream here too. Prices are reasonable, and this shop is seasonal, so get your fix while you can.

Five star popcorn?!? is there really such a thing? Yes!
I, like many others have been eating this addictive treat since I was little girl. Everyone in my family loves this stuff.
I honestly don’t even love popcorn normally. I never get it at the movies, maybe once in a blue moon I’ll buy a bag of ‘smart food’. But something about the way they do it at E W Hobbs makes you have to have it!
Its never greasy, and that salty buttery flavor will have you eating the whole box before you know it. (My best friends Mom used to buy it by the trash bag for the family. True story!)
Maybe the memories of family fun days at the Willows makes a person fall in love with this snack a little more. I don’t know. But I hope this place stays open for many more generations to enjoy!

where else can you get a bag of hot roasted peanuts for 75c?
I dunno… this is the only place I’ve ever seen it.
Tons of popcorn in random flavors except for one major missing one: kettle corn. I just want some regular ass kettle corn… no vanilla, no chocolate… JUST KETTLE CORN
The grille side certainly smelled appetizing, but we didn’t get anything that day. We did however get a frappé (excellent and made CORRECTLY) and a Raspberry Lime Ricky (which initially we thought was over priced until we saw that they make it in the traditional fashion).
Another staple of Salem Willows

I think it’s a pretty well known legend that Jack Welch — former CEO of General Electric and Salem native — insisted this place served the best popcorn in the world.
I think anyone who’s tasted it would have a hard time disagreeing with this. You wouldn’t think popcorn is the type of food that would really stand out from one place to the next but the stuff here tastes to good you’d think it was pooped out by the Baby Jesus. Or Angels. Or something equally holy and miraculous.