Rita’s Italian Ice

We LOVE Rita’s and visit it often! My husband and I usually get gelatis, the best of both worlds… creamy custard and smooth italian ice. I like that they also let you try a sample of a flavor before you commit to a whole cupful.

Can’t go wrong with Rita’s in the warm summer months. This location usually has a line as soon as we get a nice weather day in Pittsburgh. Get the Swedish fish flavor.

I LOVE Rita’s! I go whenever I’m in proximity of one, and since I had just dined next door, I of course had to get it afterwards. On this occasion, they had plenty of flavors to choose from which I was excited about. I sampled some of the one’s I hadn’t tried before, and the sample sizes they give you is astonishing. My wife and I sampled two flavors each, and had we not been craving it, another two samples would have been plenty for us. I’m exaggerating a little, but just a little. The flavors we got were good, but unfortunately the mango flavor tasted a little watered down. So we didn’t get that. And on top of that, the vanilla custard was also tasteless and seemed like it was watered down as well. So we were a little disappointed about that. But for all the great experiences before this one, it gets 4 stars. But it easily could’ve gotten 5 stars if we had our typical Rita’s experience here.

I’d never had Rita’s before, but I’m definitely a fan! I decided to find my inner child and try the Swedish Fish ice, and it was definitely a good choice. I wish they had more flavors to choose from at any given time. The prices are good for what you get too because they really pack it in the cup!

This is a nostalgic review. I miss standing in line on a hot day and getting a Gelati at Rita’s Italian Ice in Sq. hill. Sometimes the line could be long but it was always worth the wait. Imagine owning a business like this, as long as you have product, you would make everyone happy! My most fav was the mango vanilla combo. I wish they had them here in Portland. Love this place.

I love Rita’s!
I mean, this Rita’s is no different from other locations and it usually has less selection than the one in Oakland but it’s convenient so I tend to hit this one more often. Also, the people that work here tend to be friendly and always offer free samples if you want to try anything, so that’s always a plus in my book.
If you are lucky enough to hit this place on a day that they are serving oreo cream ice, you should definitely try it! Other favorites are gelatis with mango ice and vanilla custard or pear ice with strawberry custard!

Can’t beat the taste, price and variety of flavors!

I had a frozen custard twist. It had the most wonderful, smooth texture and
mouthfeel ! Absolutely amazing!
I will return!

Gelati is the perfect summer treat. I’ve had variations of this in ice cream shops, but to have it in these flavors and with Italian ice and frozen custard was really satisfying. The mango Italian ice is the shiznats, and the vanilla frozen custard provided a nice, creamy contrast to the sweetness.
I’m used to having this with soft-​serve, so the super rich, thick custard kind of caught me off guard by the time I was done. Like I was actually full, so come hungry.
Also, I love that it is pretty much an outdoor stand where you just order through the window and eat outside. Reminds me of old school neighborhood ice cream shoppes.

So I know this is a chain but I had never heard of it before this trip. Anyway, my aunty raved about it while we were visiting her in DC but we weren’t able to get to one there. Luckily, came across this one while I was using the public library up the street. We couldn’t pass it up, despite the 50 degree weather that day.
I usually wouldn’t write reviews for places like this but the guy that helped us was so sweet, I thought he deserved a shoutout. There’s no seating; it’s just a window where you order your ice and then you’re on your own.
Basically, you should look at the italian ice and the frozen custard. They have two options that mix the two: gelati has custard layered over ice over custard over ice and the misto has custard and ice blended together. They had several flavors of ice (I got strawberry starburst and my dad got keylime – both of which were super yum) and the vanilla custard. To be honest, I probably could have passed on the custard; it tasted like the buttercream frosting on birthday cakes. The italian ice was really really good though.
They also have milkshakes and blendinis and frozen lemonade but I’d recommend the italian ice or the gelati if you’ve never been here.
Parking for this specific location is all metered on the street. so good luck! The guy is so nice though, it’s worth a try! And if you don’t know what flavor you want to get, ask for a sample!

effing awesome. Love this place.

First time ever visiting this franchise and the product is very good. I look forward to trying more flavors.

A nice alternative to ice cream for desserts. I love the fact that they offer all sorts of combinations of Italian ices and custards, and that their flavors rotate on a daily basis. It’d be nice if they could maybe poll the public on which flavors to offer more though, as I’m sure that people don’t love all flavors equally!
They are awesome in that they extend their closing hour to 10 during summers, though it would be even better if they could extend it to 11, especially when days are long and hot.

I have a major sweet tooth… but ice cream/​frozen yogurt is not really my thing. But I had a craving for sweets and the only place nearby/​open was Rita’s, so I stopped by and picked up a gelati with vanilla frozen custard and mango italian ice. It was pretty damn delicious. I wouldn’t get this on regular basis, but I’m sure I will be visiting in the future.

WOW! Please come to California!

Rita’s is good, but not great. I’d rather go to razzy fresh.

I used to walk past Rita’s and say to myself, «Italian Ice? What is this, some sort of glorified snow cone?» You know what I’m talking about, those iceballs you used to get at the public pool as a kid with some crappy flavor poured on top and after a few sweet licks at the beginning you end up just eating a ball of plain ice.
So with this image in mind I continued to walk past Rita’s without even a glance until a sweltering afternoon a month or so ago. It was hot, muggy, sweat pouring down my face, and with no drink in hand coupled with vicious dry mouth I stopped at Rita’s.
Ive come to find Italian Ice is nothing like a snow cone. It is so delicious in fact that I pretty much stop by ever other day. Give me that mango, give me that Florida Orange, hit me up with the Island Surprise (or something like that), pretty much everything here is awesome and I’m so pissed at myself for being ignorant and not trying this sooner.

Rita’s serves up a pretty good custard (although, it seems like it was better five or six years ago than it is now) and has generally friendly service. The line can sometimes grow extremely long, and waits of over 20 minutes are fairly common during peak hours in the summer. The prices are a bit above what they seem like they should be, but there also aren’t many places in Pittsburgh to get custard. Rita’s also is only open for about half the year, and it always seems like I’m into custard in the winter and, therefore, out of luck.
I wish I had more to say about Rita’s or that I could praise it in some significant way. Unfortunately, I think it’s gone downhill in the past half decade, and at this point, I’m happier heading to one of the growing population of fancy frozen yogurt shops and ignoring Rita’s altogether.

in my kid’s size blueberry gelati, i literally counted 10 frozen blueberries in my ice! SO WONDERFULLL. the custard is just right for the ice, as regular soft serve ice cream would be too watery. seriously. mix the two together, you get 1. another one of their menu items, or 2. nirvana.
what makes this particular location even more awesome is that i just received a BOGO COUPON for this location! for a product with such an inelastic demand, i was pleasantly surprised.

We don’t have anything quite like this in the city of Angels, so I was pleasantly surprised to try their lemonade and green apple ice. Think of an icee, but like the cadillac of Icees, it’s a satiny smooth concoction, heaven on a hot day. the lemonade was not overly tangy and had real pieces of lemon peel, the green aple was a tad sweeter than I would have liked. I tried my friend’s ‘Gelati” a mix of lemonade and passionfruit flavors topped off ith a swirl of Vanilla custard.
Now what makes custard, custard you ask? Well I don’t really know except that it’s denser and creamier than soft serve ice cream or yoogurt. Extra Egg yolk perhaps, alls I knows: it’s damn delish!