Rita’s

I’d heard good things about Rita’s. My mom treated me to dessert here. I had rootbeer italian ice with chocolate custard. It was amazing. Words can’t describe… I ordered the small one and had to save some for later. Their customer service was good.

If you haven’t been to Rita’s yet, this is a must visit. They always have about 12 to 15 flavors of Italian Ice and my wife and Parents swear by their custard milk shakes.
My favorite is their Green Apple but their Watermelon Italian Ice is delicious to.
You can do a combo of Italian Ice and Frozen custard as well.
We had the pleasure of meeting one of their Regional Manager’s this evening named Daniel who was more than hospitable and very helpful.
Be back soon!

Beat the heat with a Gelati! It’s Italian ice with ice cream on the top and bottom of the cup. The regular size is good for sharing, but I get my own because who wants to share this yummy treat!
Even though this is an ice cream spot, when we entered we received a warm welcome. Being a first time customer, the young lady gave some suggestions and let us sample flavors to ensure pure satisfaction with our order. I decided on the sugar free pineapple ice which was delightful. It tastes like real pineapple and not artificial. The ice texture is smoother compared to Joe’s Italian ice.
For the ice cream part, you get a choice of soft served or custard based. I tried both and I went with the vanilla soft served just because the custard was a tad too eggy for me. But I would have preferred that consistency with my ice. The pineapple Gelati made me feel like I was in kicking back and relaxing on a beach.
Will definitely be back to try more items!

This review in on behalf of my 13 year old son who is a huge fan. Great flavors and very friendly service. If you don’t know how it works they are happy to offer samples. Glad they opened so close to our home!

This is a good place to grab ice cream to cool down in the heat.
They are famous for their custard soft serve ice cream which is rich creamy and delish. The portion was generous too

Came here to get something cool to try and beat the heat. I opted for the dark cherry cheesecake ice. I chose it over some of the other flavors because the cheesecake component gave it a slush with ice cream feel to it. Whoa man so tasty, smooth Italian ice with chunks of cherry and a nice creamy feel.
Flavors of Italian ice change daily so check whats up on the monitor. While eating my Italian ice, I noticed that there were more flavors on the monitor than there were in the freezer case. I think i would have ordered the mango if I had seen that earlier. (just an excuse for me to go back tomorrow!) They offer frozen custard and even a mix of both Italian ice and frozen custard as well as other concoctions.
Rita’s was exactly what I needed to cool me off on a scorching hot day, I’ll be back to try their mix of italian ice and custard. I did see a sign that they are in the process of switching from frozen custard to soft serve. I get that people are more health conscious these days, and perhaps i should be too but i think i prefer the real deal, and besides it’s dessert, you’re supposed to splurge! Thats the whole purpose! I’ll have to go back soon to get the real deal before they change it up!

Super surprised how much I like this place. The ice has great consistency and the flavor is not too sweet. Adding frozen custard is an excellent idea. Will definitely come back again. And again. And. Again.

I have seen Rita’s on foodie instagrams! So while I was out running errands with my brother I saw Rita’s and said we have to try it!
We went in and we’re looking at the menu and the guy working was very nice and had asked if we had been there before, when we said no he explained everything and gave us some samples! The gelati was amazing! It was hard for us to pick flavors because they were all good! Lol!
At the end of the day great dessert and the costumer service amazing. When your in the restaurant industry you notice service more than other people and it was great!
So thanks Rita’s!

DISAPPOINTED. NO custard due to egg shortage? Are you kidding me? That’s like In & Out not selling burgers due to cow shortage. This is your only job. Italian Ice and CUSTARD! Major fail. If the eggs are so expensive why not offer two options? Custard and pass the expense on to the customer but still have the soft serve option for those who don’t want/can’t pay for the custard. There are two machines! I drove all the way from downtown to Clairemont to share my experience with someone who hadn’t tried Ritas. I had a mediocre vanilla soft serve and my friend had the Oreo shake that we could’ve got from McDonalds for half the price. I can’t say I will go back after that. Poor business practice.

I have had very good frozen custard ice cream from several Rita’s around town and this location was no exception. I ordered a cone filled with of swirl of vanilla and chocolate creamy frozen custard ice cream for $ 3 and some change.
The frozen custard was bliss and extremely creamy. I would have to say, as creamy as it can get. They do not hold back on the amount of frozen custard they put in the small cone. The frozen custard’s flavor was great. The vanilla had a nice mild flavor, but you knew it was vanilla and the chocolate was similar, but a little more stronger, in a very good way of course. It was a great frozen custard.
The young lady who was running the shop was very nice. She offered a great little run down of the shops offerings and such, but in the end, I could not help myself, and went for my favorite, the frozen custard.
By the way, is Frozen Custard, Ice Cream?

Love this place! I highly recommend it if you’re in the area! The desserts are great! The prices are great and the employees are always so happy. I always get the Italian ices because I’m lactose intolerant. They have over 70 flavored that they rotate daily.

Interesting twist on gelato, yumm! I was expecting it to taste/​have the texture of an icey but I was pleasantly surprised.
I got green apple gelato with vanilla custard and it was sooo delicious. It’s very thick in flavor and the custard is super creamy.
I also recommend trying their misto’s. It’s basically like the more known gelato/​custard combo but blended together, and you can add things like caramel! I did green apple with caramel drizzle (tasted like those green apple caramel pops) Yumm!

oooohhhhh!!! yummmm!!! This was only my second time having Rita’s and last time I got shaved ice, so I wasn’t that excited about it. This time I got the frozen custard! It’s basically pure heaven! It tastes like a super thick, but somehow super light, whipped frozen yogurt! They only have about 5 frozen custard flavors, but I’m good with that! They’re delicious! and they have gummy bears! which are my favorite fro-​yo topping! My boyfriend also got one of their pre-​determined creations that made it taste like a strawberry shortcake! Super delicious as well! Since we live just around the corner and it’s about to be summer, we will for sure be back! yum!

They NEVER have Cherry Italian Ice!
From what I heard Rita’s Italian Ice originated from the East Coast. When we stumbled upon this place my BF was so excited to make me try it. He highly recommends their Gelati, A layer of flavored Italian Ice and creamy Frozen Custard. We ordered 2 Cherry Gelati with vanilla custard, to our dismay they don’t have Cherry that day… So instead of buying 2 we ended up buying 1 order. A month after we decided to comeback and see if they have Cherry Italian Ice, to our surprise STILL no Cherry! I asked the staff if they ever make Cherry, he said yes, but since they have lots of different flavors to choose from, it varies what they pick to make for the day. We ended up getting something else AGAIN! But we will never forget our disappointment. How can they not have cherry? It’s their featured flavor in all of Rita’s posters?! I’ll NEVER come back to this Rita’s until I see people posting that they make Cherry Italian Ice.

Insanely excited to have found Rita’s! Moved here from Philly 7 years ago and thought I had left yet another guilty pleasure behind. I’m so glad I was wrong!
Felt a little strange to see a Rita’s that you could actually walk inside and open year round, but I can’t get over that fast!
When we walked in there were 2 people behind the counter the girl was super sweet and helpful wanting to help us make a decision and the guy seeming a little bothered by us wanting to try 3 different flavor a before making our gelati.
Either way the gelati was amazing and just as I remember! Going to make this our «at least once a month» treat!

My first taste of custard in San Diego. This is hidden gem off the 5 on Clairemont Drive. I wasn’t prepared for their assortment of items on their menu. They have a ton which these are the ones I remember:
Italian Ice (option for sugar free if you want)
Cream Ice (which is their version of ice cream)
Frozen Custard
Gelati (custard with italian ice in between)
The italian ice has a bunch of different flavors. I went with the custard with some peanuts on top. Boring but very tasty. I will try something of different variety on my next visit.

Again the place continues to impress over the other locations. They had orange cream flavored custard which was fantastic. It tastes similar to a orange creamsicle /​orange dream machine smoothie from jamba juice, if you’re into that thing.
The service was great once again; very friendly. I also discovered that they do catering for various events. Cost is about 200 $ for a 5 gallon tub of their italian ice. One 5 gallon tub can supposedly feed about 100 people.

I can’t hate on ritas. It’s too quality. The new flavors like chocolate covered strawberry and horchata keep it.interesting. But I’ve got to say the ice box still hasn’t been fixed and it’s an issue. The ice is slushy. SO the texture is off. Still good but it’s off. Half the point of Italian ice is the texture. When summer comes my favourite dessert shop will be hard to enjoy as soup.
Pwetty please get the ice box problem fixed.

You remember when Grandpa used to talk about those old soda shops where they served custard? OK, maybe your grand dad is younger than mine — but I remember something about mystical ‘custard’ that was ‘better than Dairy Queen’. It wasn’t bad! It’s a lot ‘cream-​ier’ and ice cream.
The gents behind the counter also told me that they make their ice daily — which might explain some of the earlier complaints about soggy ice. I did not experience that phenomenon, and if you are looking for a sweet cool treat while sitting outside in the sun, give this place a try — friendly staff (after the fiasco of a week that I’ve had) is always a plus and appreciated.
They should think about expanding their offering with coffee/​tea.

Just opened. Huge discount today so my gelati (custard and Italian ice) was only $ 1.00. Helpful staff that explained everything on the menu. Great addition to Clairemont!