Diavola Pizzeria & Salumeria

This ought to have been a 5-​star experience. I’m still not even sure what happened. My boyfriend and I walked into a lovely restaurant with lots of people sitting outside waiting for a table (clear sign of a win!)
While he went to the WC I then witnessed a bizarre conversation between the hostess and a departing table of 8 that seemed furious about something. The hostess was holding the bill in her hand and clearly pleading with the customer about something.
While I sat alone another hostess said she’d bring over water & bread sticks. None arrived. Another woman approached the table (waitress or hostess) and offered to bring water & bread sticks. Nothing. A few minutes later a busboy came to our table, noted that we had no water or breadsticks and finally brought some over. This whole rigamarole lasted maybe 15 minutes.
Then we waited 15 minutes for an actual waiter to take our order. After another 10 or so minutes we finally shouted down someone else’s passing waitress, who found our waiter, who finally took our orders.
We then waited a fair amount of time for 1 pizza, which arrived lukewarm, and a mediocre beet salad.
I’m convinced something strange was going on – maybe a bunch of waiters had unexpectedly called in sick? Something tells me this is not the typical experience one would have at Diavola. But ours was really and truly quite bad!
One perk: the bar next door, the Gun Club (also owned by Diavola) will deliver cocktails from their bar in case you’re not a wine drinker.

I honestly can say this is one of the top places to eat North of the Bay Area. It has a rustic feel, the food and fresh and simple. Pizzas are incredible, salumi is top notch, atmosphere is fun and fresh, service is wonderful.
There is a tv I watch sports but it is not invasive and the volume is always down. Excellent beer selection and Italian wines to boot

Excellent food. Grilled beef tongue salad was a delightful surprise (both that it was on the menu and that it was so perfectly prepared). Charcuterie plate was tasty. Espresso from the custom built beast was first class. But seriously? $ 7.75 for a triple espresso? Atmosphere is pleasant – Saturday afternoon mix of families with adorable toddlers, wine tasting couples and hen parties in a historic, light filled space. Too bad about the staff. Rude, condescending and unpleasant. Adding insult to injury, asked If I wanted change when laying down what would have amounted to a 60% tip. Hence the three stars rather than five.

This a great place to eat, and a nice place to dine when you’re trying to get away from Healdsburg. It’s definitely in the casual category, but it’s Geyserville, what else would you expect?
I recently went there for lunch, had a burger and shared a beet salad. My burger was cooked a little more well done than I would like (I asked for rare, but kudos to the server who told me in advance that it would come out medium rare), but it was definitely juicy and tasty.

Easily my fav restaurant in the bay so far. Yes it’s a bit of a hike if you live in SF BUT boy is it good. Excellent wine, service, pizza, pasta, you name it! Superb restaurant and they know it.
Blessed to have found this place!

I have been here twice in my past to visits to the Bay Area. The Inferno pizza was wonderful and the last time I visited I tried one of the special pizzas for the day. It was a spicy tuna /​tobiko mixture with a raw egg on top. All of this was on top of a cheese. Pretty good but different. There are many options to choose here so I look forward to seeing what they have next time. Btw — this is a good place to stop after some wine tasting in the area.

There’s ample street parking. The wait goes by quickly. The food is amazing. Everything tasted really good, and the pizza was especially amazing, crispy and delicious. The only downside was our server whose name starts with a B. She was terrible. She took forever to come by and take our order, forgot things we asked for, and was pretty much unavailable. She was also completely unhelpful when it came to recommendations, pretty much reading down everything on the menu and saying «I love…» before every dish, making us wonder if she has any idea about the food. Thankfully, we were able to place our order and get the additional items we asked for from Kevin, who is not a server but pretty much did that job that day. The food also came quickly, which helped reduce the delay caused by our server.

This is one of my favorite restaurants, hands down. Food is always delicious and the setting is suitable for everything from a dinner with kids to a classy night out. Pizzas are straight out of Italy and the selection of local menu items — which are always on rotation — are always delectable. Only drawback is that the place has been Unilocaled a little: expect to wait for more than an hour on weekends due to the influx of SF tourists, but if you can dine on a weeknight or non-​rush time it’s well worth the visit.

My wife and I ate here a couple years ago. I think about it all the time. I haven’t found pizza that comes even close to this place. It’s a must if you like pizza and are passing through. Would give them 10 stars if I could.

This pizza is probably the best pizza I’ve had in my entire life. Get the bambino– Jesus Christ it was amazing. Also don’t skimp on dessert! Both mine and my partners were fantastic. Truly great restaurant!

Where to begin? The atmosphere is casual, yet classy. The food is cultured and satisfying. Wait staff is superb. Pizza is the best I’ve ever had, hands down. But don’t you dare assume this place is just a pizza joint. Oh, no! It can deliver a high course, worldly entrée just as gracefully. And dessert? Well… pick your Heaven!

Definitely deserves a spot in «best pizza in CA». They imported their oven from Italy and do their own cured meats, sausage, etc. It’s thin crust style, charred edges. So if you don’t appreciate that style don’t come in expecting something else and being upset. But if you DO appreciate that style — well, then!
Each table gets a bunch of thin, crispy bread sticks and they’ve got a great chile-​flavored oil for those and for the pizza.
They make a variety of other foods besides pizza and they’re all thumbs up as well. This is a «must-​stop» place for us when we’re driving up to Mendocino from the Bay Area.
They’ve even started making hoshi gaki in the Fall (dried persimmons, Japanese style). Pretty nifty!

Everything about this place was wonderful. Excellent pizza, wine list, appetizers, all at low prices. S full meal for 2 (we had octopus starter, rabbit pasta, and cha cha cha pizza) plus a bottle of Sicilian nero d’avola was only $ 120.
The only problem here was the timing. A server (not our server) brought our entrees before we were done with our appetizer. This is a huge mistake made so often by restaurants that insist for some reason on allowing random servers to bring food to tables. It makes a diner feel rushed and disrupts the anticipation of the entrée that is an important part of fine dining.
Other than that, wonderful. I also recommend their new bst nearby called the Gun Club. Great cocktails, snacks, and attentive cute young bartenders while you wait for your Diavola table.

Omg it is so amazing. Not only is it amazing you can put your name in, go to a
Different bar, wait for their text, and then head over and get seated; their pork belly is so good!!! You have to get it!!! And the pizza is so great! If you get an appetizer and a pizza it will definitely fill up 2 people! Enjoy coming here it’s so good!!!

After a premature launch of my Diavola review (an embarrassing glob of words that crashed and burned, the result of laying a twitchy finger on my phone), I discovered something. I had begged folks to not read it until I could rescue it. Instead, I amassed 18 useful, 13 funny, 20 cools for that half baked conglomeration. So, thank you very much. Selfishly, I will keep all those loyal laudations and hopefully convince you to read me once again. This time, hopefully, I will be more coherent.
Diavola is located in Geyserville, a quaint, mid 19^th century, one horse town that falsely advertises (yes to hot springs, fumaroles, and steam vents, but no to geysers, none to be found). Geyserville has somehow managed to stay small and frozen in time. If only Diavola’s interior walls could talk, with pitted, old red brick, high ceilings with original decorative tin panels, old ceiling fans spinning, re-​purposed, rustic wooden tables and chairs. Add in some modern, discretely placed, low voltage lighting, framed posters of old grade B horror movies, a collection of cheese wheels and dusty legs of Serrano ham hanging from grotesque meat hooks over the bar, and most essentially, the aroma of yeasty bread and pizzas as they bake in their artisan stone oven, and there you have it. Really charming, warm, friendly, and so relaxing.
The menu is small. One page only, front and back, specializing in some very traditional and also some very unique dishes. Some of the offerings are quite strange, incorporating such things as sweetbreads, pork cheek, pork belly, cocks combs, livers, gizzards, beef heart, and even uni. For the unadventurous, don’t let that scare you. Your picky stomach is safe.
We feasted first on their house made bread sticks, pencil thin, crispy strips of dough rolled in sesame and herbs. Addictive.
Then came the Pasta Fazool, a large bowl of soup/​stew with startlingly rich flavors of kale, several kinds of beans, and fat pasta in a complex, very thick, yet mellow herbal broth. Made even more hearty with the addition of parmigiano and prosciutto, it could be a meal in itself. A 5 star recipe.
Our medium thick crust Bambino Pizza was baked in their stone oven, topped with wonderfully fresh mozzarella, smoked house sausage, basil leaves, marinated black olives, and a light smear of perfectly balanced, chunky tomato sauce. The bubbly, lightly burned crust screamed of primal smokiness from its exposure to the raging hot coals. Their pizza is unforgettable. This comes in one size, a 12 inch pizza, and is reportedly enough for 2 moderate eaters. Honestly, I woulda, coulda eaten much more. Definitely another 5 star winner.
Our dining buddies who have dined there before, wisely chose a beautiful thin crust pizza, the Romana, and an asparagus appetizer with a fried egg on top. There were no disappointments at our table.
The service is great, the pizza alone is worthy of a stop. And I promise you, you will be thinking about this meal for a long time hence.

WOW! What a difference 2 years makes!
I came here 2 years ago and had good food… I came back a few days ago and had amazing cuisine!
The menu revs up your appetite while making it even harder to decide what you want. They offer a wonderfully thoughtful menu with things like beef heart skewers to sweet potato gnocchi with truffles and the best tiramisu and Marsala gelato I’ve ever had!
The winner of the table was by far the spaghettini with pork cheeks and beef. It was the best pasta dish I have ever eaten. Anywhere! The pasta was cooked so perfectly that I am still craving it days later!!!
This place needs to make it onto a food network show!
I applaud the staff and chefs! Service was great and the wine list… Well, look where you’re at! It was great! They also have a nice selection of Italian wines as well.
Please go here! I really enjoyed it and I’m pretty sure you will as well.

For me, there’s nothing more satisfying after a long day of drinking that homemade, carb-​heavy food. My boss, who is local to the area, recommended that my boyfriend and I try Diavola while we were visiting wineries in the area.
The line, while daunting, goes by slightly faster than you think it would. The hostess actually crossed off my name without calling it, so I’m not sure how longer we sat than we should have. She was extremely apologetic, so no biggie.
We had the most friendly, vivacious waitress that I have ever come across. I so wish I remembered her name, because she was incredible.
But even more incredible? The food. My boyfriend and I started with the squid and bone marrow, which was on special, but it really should be permanently on the menu forever because it is one of my favorite things that I have ever eaten. The squid was charred like it was on a grill and seasoned like it was a steak and completely meaty and satisfying like no squid I’ve ever had. As my boyfriend so eloquently put it, «If you closed your eyes, you would think you were eating steak.»
And that bone marrow. Every single bite was flavorful and close-​your-​eyes-​and-​see-​the-​light good. We were given a huge portion, and it was all I could do not to lick that bone clean.
I got the chicken under a brick, which came with a nice grouping of pancetta, farro, chantrelles, heirloom beans, and tomato and bagna caulda. It was a large portion that I couldn’t finish, but really, really delicious.
My boyfriend got the spaghettini with pork cheek ragu, which came with decadent slow braised poor and beef, basil and pecorino, and I wish so badly that I could recreate this dish because it was rich and delicious.
If you couldn’t tell by my gushing, I loved my meal at Diavola. I’ll be looking for any excuse to come back, and I’ll be praying that the squid and bone marrow is still on the menu!

Our first time here and not our last. This is NOT a place to go if you are on a diet or watching your cholestrol. But it’s darn good!!! Darling place in a tiny town. Excellent service, nice ambiance and really good food. I’ve posted pics of our dishes. I took most of my pizza home as did my husband with the rigatoni. So we had two meals from this lovely place on the same day. We will be back — check it out!

Yowser! Another little gem that is off the charts awesome.
No reservation, as we simply were in the neighborhood, visiting Ridge Winery. So we had to wait 15. Well worth it.
It is in the center of the tiny town of Geyserville, and were it not, you would need reservations a month in advance.
They take their salumi cheese, pizza and pasta really really seriously. Almost all of their meats are created, cured or enhanced in-​house, from aged salami to spiced pork belly.
Naturally almost everything can be purchased either cured or prepackaged for take-​home or lovingly decorated on your pizza or pasta.
They offer a decent beer selection and, naturally, a wine selection at reasonable prices to pair with the Italian oriented menu.
The thin crust pizza I ordered included creamed onion, house sausage and smoked bacon. Killer!
Staff is friendly and knowledgable — if you are in the area, it ‘s a must stop! Mangia!

My wife and I were visiting the San Francisco area in celebration of our 25^th anniversary. My nephew lives in Oakland so he was our guide to the best of the best in the Bay Area. Of course during stay we had to visit the wine country. With my nephew accompanying us we headed out. He said after our vineyard visits we HAD to dine at one of the most incredible pizza restaurants in the world. I was doubtful any pizza could be that good but was I wrong. I noticed on their door Zagat had given the restaurant a 26. That notes that the food is nearing perfection. The Unilocal reviews were also outstanding.
Since we arrived late in the afternoon, the restaurant wasn’t busy at all. We learned the restaurant is known for their smoked meats such as pork belly. They also sell their meats to surrounding restaurants.
We ordered two different pizzas. First the «Boscaiolo». It had house-​made sausage, mushrooms, house-​smoked pork belly, pepper, spinach and creamed onions. The next pizza we ordered was the «Salsiccia». It had house sausage, red onions and pecorino cheese.
While we were waiting we munched on homemade thin bread sticks and admired all the beautiful paintings and prints that adorned the walls of the restaurant. After around a 30-​minute wait, our pizzas were delivered. They were a picture of beauty. The restaurant has a brick pizza oven that «flash» bakes their pizzas at 700 degrees.
Instead of staring at the pizzas in front of us, it was time to dive in and enjoy these incredible pizzas. Diavola’s pizza crust was thin and crispy just like I like it. The high temperatures «blistered» the outside edges of the crust. Biting into the pizza was bliss. The pizza was total perfection. It was crunchy and flavorful, the perfect combination. Thank you Diavola for an incredible experience. We do hope to visit the Bay Area again and Diavola was definitely be on our list of restaurants to dine at.