Rita’s Italian Ice

Just a window, no where to sit and eat.
Got the vanilla/​chocolate swirl custard with rainbow sprinkles. The small is enough for two people… it’s good but not better than anything I’ve ever had.
The slushi thing was HUGE, and very thick. Mehhhhhhh

Unbelievably bad location. Can’t fill orders correctly, slow service, untrained employees. Avoid this Rita’s.

I have previously enjoyed Rita’s custard at several other franchise locations. This was my first time at this location, and unfortunately, it was a very poor experience. The depth of the poorness, in fact, was baffling. Let me explain…
As usual, I ordered a «gelati,» which typically has custard on the bottom, Italian ice in the middle, and a generous swirl of custard on top. The tartness of the Italian ice and the sweetness of the custard are a match made in heaven. However, when I got my gelati, I noticed that the top custard swirl was much smaller than usual. But no big deal, I thought. I knew there would be plenty more custard on the bottom. It wasn’t until I was on my way home, having blazed through the dwarf swirl, that I incredulously discovered… there was no custard at the bottom!
There was no point in finishing the tart Italian ice without custard to pair it with, so I turned back around, my cup still mostly full. I was confident Rita’s would make everything right. But what happened next was bizarre, to say the least.
It started out pleasantly enough. When I informed the server of my problem, she offered to add more custard to my cup. Since the ice had mostly melted on my way back to Rita’s, that would be replaced as well. She took my cup, dumped it in the sink, and then to my slight surprise proceeded to refill the same cup.
Suddenly, a woman appeared (she later identified herself as the franchise owner, Valerie Nelson). Rudely, she demanded payment from me for half the price of a new gelati because — I kid you not — I had received a new paper cup. Although this seemed like a trivial reason to charge someone, I informed Ms. Nelson that they had actually reused my old paper cup. She said that was «impossible» — they couldn’t reuse my old cup because it was «contaminated,» and they had disposed of it. «It’s there in the trash.» She walked over to the trashcan. Unsurprisingly, it contained no cup. Not at a loss for words, she claimed someone had just emptied it. I might have believed this if the trashcan had not been in plain view from where I was standing. Bewilderingly, she then scolded me several times for not «saying something» when I saw the server reuse my cup.
Next, Ms. Nelson informed me that they had found custard at the bottom of my cup, and showed me a chunk of ice, within which was a tiny pocket of custard about the size of a Hershey’s Kiss. Now, as farfetched as it sounds, perhaps my cup truly had contained custard. The only scenario I can imagine is that the custard was so small and focal that when I dug down to the very bottom of the cup I did not hit it. However, anyone who has had a Rita’s gelati knows that normally there is a thick layer of bottom custard that is impossible to miss. Regardless, I decided to give Ms. Nelson the benefit of the doubt and apologized for not seeing the custard. I mentioned that it appeared to be a [much] smaller amount than what I expected based on my experience at other Rita’s locations. She countered that it was the standard amount and that they could not add more even if they wanted to.
This truly was the most bizarre customer service I have ever seen. I feel like coming to this Rita’s location is a lose-​lose. Not only will you get a laughably small amount of custard compared to other Rita’s locations, but if you ever encounter a problem, you will be rudely berated while being fed lines of questionable integrity. Save yourself the trouble and visit another Rita’s location instead.

It is absolutely a rip off! Almost 3 dollars for a stupid custard that it is nothing but a McDonald’s/Burger King swirl from a machine?

This location is superior to the inner harbor location for many reasons!
1. It is cheaper.
2. It has more flavor variety
3. It has a parking lot!
4. It’s not flooded with tourists
5. It has a live ritas water ice cup dancing around!
How could you resist?

Ugh. Rita’s gets 5 stars for proximity, zero stars for everything else. Terrible service, and somehow a sundae costs LESS than a regular sized dish with one topping. The cherry on this faux sundae is the fact that they can’t just charge you the sundae price, you need to add more toppings to make it legit.
Wtf, Rita’s?

I love Rita’s and to be honest, how can I refuse a 50 cent upgrade to a large. I always go with the half ice half custard option, choosing a tart fruit flavored ice to complement the sweet and thick creaminess of the custard.
It’s a delicious treat but be wary of the 50 cent upgrade. It’ll leave you with enough calories, carbs, saturated fat, and diabetes to last a month.

Rita’s is great anytime but best in the summer. The Custard and Fruity Ice combos make for a refreshing freezy treat. This location is not in the best neighborhood but far from bad. Sits next to a burger king so you can make this dessert!

When can you ever go wrong with Rita’s ! And its in lovely Canton. Get a treat and go for a walk.
New flavor that I had was Strawberry Starburt. mmmm, mmmm goood.

Yummy, is about right for this place! If you haven’t been to Rita’s then you have been cheated on life, Get off your computer now and go to rita’s for some tasty Italian ice.ummmmmm.

Convenient location and friendly service. I’m not a fan of the actual product though. It’s a bit pricy, and some of the flavors are artificial tasting or downright gross (PB&J, really?). That said, it’s refreshing and I enjoy sitting on their benches on a hot day.

Like any other place, Rita’s is in Baltimore City too, and this location is located right off of Eastern Ave, next door to a Burger King, where the parking lot for both are located.
Service can vary, it’s in the city, and on a hot day be prepared for the wait. And wait, and a little more time later, and you will likely get your ice cream, gelati, whatever…, once you get past the double sided 10 people deep line that is constantly there, you can enjoy the mass produced italian ice product or fresh serve custard they offer .
I would recommend any time after 6pm for a visit, as before the local school across from it will have students there, adding to the long wait that’s already there.
Service for me has varied but I am not a stickler when it comes to my service at Rita’s, though it’s hit or miss.
Overall it’s not, Pitango Gelato in Fells Point (which is a few minutes down the street and far better), but it’s a known consistent product everyone loves, 3 stars!

The one-​star rating isn’t for the product — I love Rita’s, always have, and this location does it just as well as anyone else. Unfortunately, some homeless guy was hanging around the stand asking people for money (uncomfortable in itself), and I guess that the counter person was distracted by that — anyhow, she processed my order and handed my debit card TO SOMEONE ELSE IN LINE. Basically, my bank account was in the hands of a perfect stranger — even for two seconds, that really, REALLY frazzled my nerves. What if that guy had run off with my damn card?
I know, he couldn’t have done anything with it — but that’s not the point. The point is that a person who was not me had access to my card, thanks to the girl behind the counter — if that had been a credit card, if he had run off, what the hell could I have done about it? Other than call the cops?
If you’re going to come here, keep an eye on your credit/​debit card AT ALL TIMES and do NOT let it out of your sight even for half a second.
I’m so upset about this that I’m contemplating writing a complaint to corporate headquarters. Seriously, who does that?
I’m NEVER visiting this location again. Ever. I still cannot believe she did that.
Tip For Diabetics: Be aware that sugar-​free does NOT mean «carb-​free». Even the so-​called sugar free ices here are made with sugar alcohols (xylitol, sorbitol, etc.), which will send your carb counts flying through the roof. It is not worth elevating your levels for this — I’m telling you. A 12 ounce ice (considered «small») is 79 GRAMS OF CARBS. Yes, that’s right — seventy-​nine. That’s the equivalent of nearly 6 carb choices. Skip this if at all possible.
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. YMMV. Seek medical advice and tailor my review to your situation. I simply provide opinion.

I had the raspberry lemonade gelati with vanilla custard. It was sooo good. They even have little pieces of raspberry in the icee. The vanilla and the icee work really well together or even by themselves. My friend had the mango which wasn’t bad either. You can always mix 2 flavors into one. Inexpensive and delectable cold treats.

I’m not a huge fan of sweet stuff, and definitely not a fan of overly processed sweet stuff, but this was a nice treat in the summer months. Their banana was especially good.

Not my taste but they have interesting flavors. To me they were a little bit to artificial tasting but hey I am spoiled eating real Italian ice cream.

And why not a 5? Only because I would like to have some place to sit and eat my gelati and the fact that they only had about 5 or 6 flavors to choose from when we went — mango, black cherry, cotton candy, smores, strawberry, and maybe one other thing. But i’ve been to others where there were lots more choices.
But anyway, it was still delicious! I got mango with chocolate custard. The vanilla custard was also great. The staff were also really friendly. And the great thing about Rita’s is that they let you try all the flavors! So go! have fun! and eat gelati! Yay!
Bottom line: great place to get your icy fix on a hot summer/​warm spring day ;-)

Rita’s gelati is great. You get vanilla or chocolate custard on top, then you pick a flavor of ice and I like mango the best and then you get more custard on the bottom. Prices are very reasonable and on a hot day, Rita’s hits the spot. If you don’t like custard, just get the italian ice which is great. They let you try out flavors too.

I love this place most since I watched it grow up from the ground of the Burger King parking lot. We live a few blocks away and visit as much as we can. We first focused on custard and Italian ice combo offerings like misto shakes and gelatti (warning, this is not the Italian gelatto you’re accustomed to. for that, go to the new place in fells point.). But lately, perhaps due to the heat, we’ve been sticking with straight Italian ice. Delicious! Love the cotton candy flavor, but all are cool and refreshing. I’m glad you’re in my ‘hood Rita!

Normally I hate it when owners give their places good reviews, but I love Rita’s so much that I’ll let it slide and give them five stars. Their frozen italian ices are delicious on a hot day, the place always looks very clean, and their staff are extremely friendly. I feel priviliged to have a Rita’s two minutes walk away from my house. Rita’s rocks my world.