Rita’s Italian Ice

Found this cute little hole in the wall dessert place after Sunday brunch at Din Tai Fung.
The place is very small and easy to miss, but don’t be fooled — the menu and combination choices are extensive.
It’s hard to find authentic Italian Ice in LA, and this one really hits the spot for those w/​NYC dessert palates. They’ve got a wide variety of flavors when it comes to Italian Ice flavors, and you have the choice of topping it off w/​a thick creamy custard in Vanilla, Chocolate or Swirl. The girl working there was super friendly :)

Love their Italian ice and custard! The custard is thick and rich and the ice is refreshingly cool, which gives it a wonderful combination. It’s cool that they change the flavors very often, but that can sometimes be a disappointment when you find a favorite flavor and come back and it’s gone :(The staff is very polite and very informative. Price? Not to worry! It’s only $ 3 a cup and $ 4 for custard with it. Would definitely recommend to come here in the summer to cool off!

Yummy! We don’t have anything like this in the area so this hits the spot for myself and my husband. We were in the plaza walking around after dinner and stumbled upon this place. I had been here a few years ago with him but had forgotten about it.
Albeit it was a rainy evening, we still got our craving and it hit the spot!
I ended up ordering the pineapple ice + the custard… My husband just ordered the custard. There’s nothing out there like it… it’s so milky and decadent. It was delicious. :) Will be back for sure.

We love frostbites wanted to see if this would
son had a Carmel shake he loved it. I had vanilla custard and it was horrible tasted like frozen whip cream will never go back but the guy whom helped us was really nice

We stopped by to try some custard ice cream and we were pretty disappointed. It just wasn’t very flavorful. The most noticeable difference is the texture: it’s thick like a marshmallow. It was unfortunately not very flavorful.

Today we visited Rita’s and had a very pleasant experience! We were helped by Elisa A. Elisa was very professional, friendly and helpful. I wasn’t planning on ordering anything but decided to buy a few things because I felt happy and at home thanks to Elisa. Thank you Elisa! The Italian ice and custard was great too!

Came by and accidentally saw this place and had to try it. Our first time. What an awesome combination of Italian ice and custard ice cream. The Italian ice is smooth and tasty and the custard is thick and delicious, pairs well with each other because the custard ice cream doesn’t melt as fast as ice cream so you enjoy it to the very last bite. We ordered the pineapple and mango Italian ice with vanilla custard ice cream and the my kids got the Swedish fish and island flavors Italian ice with vanilla custard ice cream. Definitely will be back.
Service: the girl over the counter was very friendly she explained very well what they have to offer. You can also sample before deciding.

Probably the best Italian ice place in the 626 area, since there aren’t too many out here.
The ice is firm and tinted with light, juicy flavors. I would recommend mango and pineapple.
The custard is thick and milky, loved it!
Also the service here is really amazing. The people who work here are so nice and knowledge, they even tell you to check in on Unilocal for discounts. Yes.

First experience buying Italian Ice after having it with my daughter at the Fair for the first time ever. Small little joint that you can miss if you’re not paying attention and no seating inside, but staff was nice, took time to explain what the heck we were looking at and how to order.
Wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s nice to be introduced to something different and they got an extra * from me because when I told the young girl it was our first visit at Ritas, or any Italian Ice retailer, for that matter, she gave us 2 coupons for BOGO Free, which I thought was extremely considerate.

I somehow ended up here after a long hot day and I was super excited to finally give this place a shot! I know Rita is a chain and this location is relatively new or just all of rita’s italian ice are the same but I was super disappointed with their consistency. The italian ice was super runny, every single flavor I tried was super runny. I guess I just prefer the firm icy texture… I felt like I was drinking a unique flavored icee from 711. Nothing special.
I got the watermelon and tropical flavor which was very light and refreshing but even on my first scoop, the whole thing was already melting!

Good local place for custard, but Frostbites in Chino Hills is better.
Variety of different flavors which you can try. I felt like a lot of their flavors were syrupy and the italian ice was very chunky.
Root Beer with Custard Gelati — Good. tastes like a root beer float. Custard was creamy and tasted good. The ice was a little choppy and chunky.
Overall — probably would come back if I was in the area, but not a place where I would purposely come out to.

Well I was introduced to Rita’s by two of my friends yesterday 5÷9÷15 (I’m writing this a day late), and I must say I enjoyed it very much.
I had the Horchata Ice Gelati with the Vanilla and Chocolate Swirl Custard mix and mini M&M’s as a topping.
The Horchata had a great cinnamon flavor, so if you love the traditional taste of Horchata you’ll like this a lot. It was very soft ice so if you planned on taking it home you must know it wouldn’t last long if you live further than a round the block.
I like that they put a little bit of the custard on the bottom and when you get through the Gelati you hit more custard on the bottom.
The vanilla and chocolate custard swirl was every smooth and good.
If you like sweet this is your choice. I really enjoyed it and will return.
The staff was very nice and helpful too.
Enjoy!

Very friendly and knowledgeable staff. They let us sample as many flavors as we wanted. My favorite ices were «Alex’s lemonade,» mango, and tropical punch.
The texture of the custard is not my favorite. It reminds of a very thick cool whip. Really fluffy and thick. Next time, i’ll just get the Italian Ice, minus the custard.
Outside seating only. Plenty of parking. I would come back for the Lemonade Ice and other ice flavors!

Yum! Ritas is so refreshing to eat especially during summer when 626 has like 90 degree weather. Ritas is in the Pavilions plaza on Baldwin. It’s a very small place, so youll have to drive through the plaza to find it. It’s on the same side as the Starbucks, so just drive towards there lol
You get to sample the icees if you cant chooose one that you like. I’m very indecisive so I love how I can just try all the flavors without anyone getting mad haha. The first time I came here I got the mango icee with the vanilla custard. The combination together is amazing! You should definitely get both the icee & the custard together if you go. The custard by itself is extremely thick and rich for me, but my boyfriend could eat the custard by itself if he wanted to. I guess it just depends on your taste buds.
The second time I came here I got horchata icee with vanilla custard. This was also delicious to eat and I would forsure get it again. I love drinking horchata whenever I go to mexican restaurants so I was pretty excited that they had this flavor as an icee.
They change their icee flavors daily; not everyday will you get the same flavors. So make sure to call in advance to see if they have a flavor you like.
The service here is great as well! Every time I walk in they greet me with a hello, how are you doing? It is very easy to engage in conversation with them as well and they make me feel really comfortable. I usually dont like talking to people I dont know, but they made it very inviting for me. I will forsure come back whenever I’m done eating Mokkoji which is in the same plaza as Ritas :)

2.5−3 stars because of personal preference.
Great layout and service but just not a fan of what I ate. I really really really wanted to fall in love with Rita’s but it just didn’t happen. You can ask the staff for a quick run through because it does get overwhelming for a first timer. The staff was super nice and took her time to explain everything to us which is why I gave the one star.
ordered:
*Blendini: vanilla custard and strawberry Italian ice– which is their custard mixed with their italian ice. overall it was just okay. i didn’t finish it because taste wise i thought it was just okay flavor and texture wise. i’m used to the gelato/​ice cream texture.
wished they had more flavors if anything. like i mentioned before rita’s italian ice is just not for this sweet tooth fanatic.
Tips:
–accepts cash and credit
–seating area outside is available
–check in discount
–same plaza as la fitness, Au 79, Starbucks, daiso, etc.
–provides free samples.

The staff here was super awesome! We informed them that it was our first time visiting Rita’s and really nicely they told us to feel free to try out the flavors. The day we went, maybe because it was close to their closing time, they didn’t have too many options as far as italian ice flavors. It was easy to make my choice mainly cause they had less than 4 flavors on display. They also told us that they change the flavors all the time. I would love to come back on a day when they have more options. I went for the mango flavored ice with vanilla custard. The ice is delicious and creamy. The custard is even better. I was told that there is custard in the bottom then ice then custard on top. I do wish though they had given me more custard. That custard is just delicious!
Clean place, great staff, just wish they had more flavors available even if it’s near their closing time.

I’m not in this part of town often, but I remembered Tiffany’s ROTD & it really made hungry for Italian ice. On a sunny day in November where I had been walking on a golf course for 4 hours, I thought that some Italian ice would really hit the spot. Melissa made me a really nice large size Italian ice, layering pear and orange ices with a little finish of strawberry kiwi on top. Lovely! Even though it had turned into evening, I really enjoyed my ice & it’s a great way to give yourself a treat & cool down. Heaven only knows how busy Rita’s is in the summer time.
There also other stuff on the menu, like blended drinks & custard, but custard doesn’t really do it for me. But fruity Italian ice flavors? Coming back for sure!

I’ve been here a few times already, and I still can’t figure out what the hype is all about. Yes, it’s Italian ice cream, but okay.
The ice cream custard is no biggy, and is it suppose to be healthier? no offense, but it’s still frozen yogurt to me.
I have obviously tried the ice cream custard, but with Florida Orange, and I have also tried the dragonfruit too. Both flavors are tangy and good. And it tastes like a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ ice cream bar when mixed with custard.
The server is quite knowledgeable about the product, and is very friendly. She took a lot of time explaining what’s what. Very patient and is cool.
Another thing is they don’t always have the same flavors. I don’t know if it’s good or bad… but I assume it’s to minimize cost overhead.

Orange County is blessed with a number of Italian ice shops. Rita’s is the newest one to enter the Italian ice game. My girls and I were running errands in the San Gabriel area and we could not stop talking about Italian ice, to which we then realized that there was a major shortage in the area. Rita’s was the only place that popped up in our Unilocal search so we were well on our way.
Passion Fruit — None of the flavors stood out to us so we settled on the Passion Fruit. The ice was incredibly sweet and the artificial flavoring was unmissable. It left us feeling heavy and wanting something savory.
I’ll definitely be saving my Italian ice cravings for Confetti, Frostbites for convenience.

Thanks to the hot weather that summer always provides us, I’m always in search of something that can cool me down and taste delicious. Instead of getting my usual yogurt or boba fix, I decided that Italian Ice might do the trick. Recently opened and located in a busy shopping plaza, Rita’s Italian Ice was the oasis to help cool me down!
FOOD 5 — Stars: We had two orders to help bring some much needed cooling and flavor to our taste buds: Mango Italian Ice and Mango and Black Cherry Italian Ice with Custard. The flavor comes through so strongly that it makes your taste buds jump for joy. It was extremely refreshing. The custard is smooth yet creamy and completely delicious. You will love it!
SERVICE — 5 Stars: The service here was amazing. They let you try as many flavors as you want and even explained the various options we had. You can get just Italian Ice, Italian Ice with custard mixed in with it known as the gelati, or you can get the Italian Ice with just the custard on top. If you want to mix and match flavors, you can do that as well. The two girls helping us were extremely helpful especially since it was my first time here and very friendly.
ATMOSPHERE — 5 Stars: This place has been recently renovated and has a small seating area inside and a couple tables and chairs outside. If you can grab a seat, then consider yourself lucky. However, if you’re like me, you just want to grab it to go and enjoy it from the comfort of your own home so you don’t get tempted to buy a second one after you finish the first one!
RECOMMENDATION: If you’re in the Arcadia area, check this place out. It’s a great alternative to yogurt or boba where you’ll be left refreshed, but not overly full! Not to mention, their flavors are so delicious! Oh and if you check-​in you get a 5% discount off your order… any discount on food always makes it taste just that much better!