Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard — Restaurant in Houston

I recently visited Rita's for the first time on the recommendation of a coworker. While I was there I decided to purchase a gift card for the same coworker's upcoming birthday. I had emailed the day before to know if they have gift cards, which they said yes. During my visit I asked to purchase a gift card. The young guy working did not know how to charge out for a gift card. He had to call his manager, which is fine, I can be patient. But he was having quite a time trying to check me out for the gift card. I was not confident about the gift card so I purchased another one from Target, not realizing they also have Rita's gift cards. So I held on to the original gift card. I decided to use the gift card and visited the Rita's location again with my Mom. I ordered the Salted caramel custard (small size) and my Mom ordered Vanilla custard (small size). I used the gift card going over by a $1.02. I asked how much did I owe. The same young guy from before said you don't owe anything. I said it went over the gift card amount. I said fine. I took one step away not to question him again. Then he said No you still owe. I said yes I know that's what I'm asking. I paid the $1.02 I owed and left. The small salted caramel custard I got was literally to small spoonfuls. My Mom's completely filled the cup. I noticed the salted caramel was almost empty. He could have told me and I would have picked a different flavor or he could have added another flavor to make a small serving. I didn't say anything. I will not be back. Both times my experience with lacking. It lacked training and customer service. My business will stay with Jeremiah's...

On 7/17/25, I arrived at 9:42 pm for a published 10 pm closure. The Rita’s signage lights were out. The lights inside were on. I went to open the door and it was not locked. A woman was mopping the floor. It was extremely wet. She did not stop mopping. There was no wet floor sign. There was another woman behind the counter. I asked if they were closed. She said, “yes.” I asked about the advertised 10 pm closure which was also on the door. I thought maybe Google had the wrong hours. She looked at her watch and said, “oh.” The two woman looked at each other to formulate some sort of explanation for the early closure. The woman mopping looked up and said, “we’re closing early because we’re out of a lot of product.” The woman behind the counter said, “we can get you some Italian ice but no custard.” The floor was soaking wet and still being mopped. I left and decided to support a business with better customer service.

As I was backing out at 9:44 pm. I saw a couple enter the business on the wet floor and walk out with “product.” I wanted to leave this message for the owner as it think this warrants a staff training. If the closing staff wants to go home at 10 pm, the advertised closure should be 9:30 or 9:45 pm. I worked customer service for several years and would accommodate customers that walked into the door until the advertised closing time. White Oak has several businesses that stay open late and you may be missing out on valuable business by closing early. I supported this business several times in the past with no customer service...

I have patronized with this location for 5 plus years and never have I had a problem ordering a 5 gallon insulated cooler for pickup and return until now. Needed to order for a basketball tournament and was told we only do that for certain customers, place your order online because I cannot quote a price over the phone. Since when?? I asked for the manager and she insisted she was the manager. If she was, her customer service has declined tremendously. Needless to say I was finally quoted a price over the phone. I call back a few days later to place the order and an associate says she will have the manager call. Guess what, I'm still waiting on that phone call. Apparently they dont need the business. I ended up using another vendor but I definitely will NEVER patronize this...