Rita’s

Sad this location is ruining the beloved ritas franchise and brand. Hire some managers who aren’t defensive and know how to speak to customers in a kind and gentle manner. And why don’t you cherry daily??? Ughhhhh, time to make to drive to other locations not owned by the OC franchise group!

They are serving custard again!
I love Joe’s Italian Ice, but it is a drive for me, so I was pretty stoked to find out that the Rita’s nearby was serving custard again.
Went here twice with the bf within the past week or so. Friendly service and perfectly made. I’ve gotten the mango and cherry Italian ice. The cherry/​vanilla custard gelati is my favorite! Doesn’t beat the Joe Latti with bada bing cherry, but it will do.

As I began to eat the Wild Cherry kids cup, I began to find little pieces of plastic string in my cup. I let it pass as I don’t get too phased about stuff in my food unless it’s really bad.
But then I take another spoonful to my mouth and almost swallowed an even larger piece of plastic. When I finally looked in my cup (it was dark out) I also found hair in it.
Super disappointed. I love Rita’s too and I never had problems with this location aside from the fact that they never have cherry, but this was truly unacceptable.

Rita’s is seasonal and something everyone looks forward to in NJ + NY. Since high school we would always look forward to free ice day on the first day of spring. When I found out there was a Rita’s fairly new in Irvine I was so excited to get my gelati fix here in California.
When I ordered my lemon gelati with vanilla custard I could not believe how little custard I received! The ratio I’m used to receiving on the east coast is ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. So imagine the first bottom ¹⁄₃ of the cup vanilla custard, the rest ²⁄₃ ice to the top and finally a heaping swirl of more vanilla custard on top (the amount of a small soft serve cone). I did not get this here. I got like 3 tablespoons of custard on top where there was a solid inch of room once the cover was put on. The cover should basically smush down the custard when closing the lid. You know what I mean?
The whole purpose of a gelati is to get the best of both worlds with each spoonful. Anyways the flavors here are still great as ever. My favorites are Sour Patch Kids Red, Swedish Fish and Lemon. Root beer ice with vanilla custard is also great! It tastes like a root beer float.
Because Rita’s is a new establishment in the area I assume this is the reason for the little slip-​ups. I’m sure everyone who hasn’t had Rita’s and enjoyed it for the first time didn’t have a complaint. But for the price point and what I’m used to on the East Coast, I was just a little surprised by the gelatis here at this location.
Young friendly staff. Free samples.

After dinner, the boyfriend and I were craving desserts and I wanted something more sorbet-​like. We came across Rita’s 10 minutes before they were closing.
*note: when mapping, take out the north park plaza and just map the address!
The guy who answered the phone and helped to direct us there was very helpful. He offered us a lot of samples since it was our first time.
I ended up getting a regular kiwi-​strawberry Italian ice with vanilla soft serve. They had run out of custard due to an egg shortage (?). It was towards closing, so there wasn’t as many flavors of Italian ice left either, but that’s a given.
Overall, it was a very friendly experience with great service and I’ll come back again when they have restocked on custard!

May be this is an east cost thing. I get sticker shock the times I’ve visited Ritas. The new recipe with bananas and stuff cost a whopping $ 6.50…why wasn’t there *any* pricing labeled anywhere?! (Probably illegal). Add my small soft serve $ 3.50 and we paid $ 10 for two people. Splutter!
Instead of the frozen custard Ritas has soft serve ice cream instead. It’s a temporary thing… Something about an egg production problem. $ 3.50 for soft serve which McDs or Ikea sell for $ 1?!
You can spend less at Ritas, but it’s still pricey. I’m happier at a Rite Aid ice cream counter.

+ Custards are amazing
+ Friendly staff
+ Good prices
Coming from the East Coast where there are multiple Ritas in every city, I was happy to find out this one opened only a couple of miles from me. I tried it last weekend and it was just as amazing as I remembered.
Staff was friendly and the girl working even offered to split up a large custard into 2 kids so my gf and I could share. The 2 kids cups ended up costing more and held more delicious ice/​custard haha.
Will definitely be coming back here.