Dianda’s Italian American Pastry

Rum balls. Rum balls. Rum balls. Excellent rum balls. The tiramisu was very good too.

The Chocolate Rum Cake & Cannoli’s are to die for! My dad loves the chocolate rum cake… he drives to SF every year to get one for his birthday! It’s totally worth the drive!

I can’t get enough of the Tres Leches cake with strawberries. And I’m not a big strawberry person. But the fruit is a sideline player in this rich, dense, incredibly moist delicacy. I ordered a cake for 35 — 50 people and couldn’t carry it out, it was so heavy. But a robust, behemoth of a helpful woman lifted it like it was a kleenex and whisked it out to my car. For my 50^th birthday cake, I couldn’t have done any better. A line out the door tells the story right away! You know when you see a line out the door of any store or restaurant in San Francisco, the place has got it going on, because San Franciscans know what’s good. It was $ 144.50, by the way, so not a Safeway cake. But you get what you pay for — and SO much more. You want a cake people talk about, this is the one. There is no room in the world for cheap and stupid cakes, so go to Dianda’s.

I am extremely disappointed with this place. I spent 130 bucks for 40 cupcakes for my son’s birthday. I wanted these cupcakes to be as good as the rest of the food I had lined up. What a MAJOR disappointment! When my husband brought them home they were cold… as if frozen.
Then I heard from another that they no longer go here because they now freeze items prior to purchase. These cupcakes were dry and tasteless… the chocolate a little less so. The frosting was VERY unsatisfying… as if made with Crisco instead of butter. Hell, even the kids didn’t eat them. I wish I would have thought to photograph the voluminous amount of non-​eaten cupcakes on abandoned plates and in the garbage.
Also, 20 were supposed to be white cake with whipped cream on top. but instead all 40 of them had the gross chocolate frosting. Lame. I did have guests that DIDN’T WANT chocolate!
I am sorry but when you place an order with a bakery YOU EXPECT THEM TO BAKE IT FRESH!!! And get the order right. I will never go here again. Used to be great… now tastes like cheap, fake ingredients. I knew I should have baked them myself. 130 bucks for 40 disgusting cupcakes!!! Really???
Would gave been happy to pay if they were good… at least we had delicious Mitchell’s ice cream on the side…

super cute italian bakeshop! i got the vanilla nepolean and it was perfectly layered and delicious — not super sweet! would come again!

Blandest cannoli ever! I came here with so high expectations and I was completely disappointed! We had cannoli and brownies and both in our opinion were tasteless. Also, really overpriced.
Definitely we are not planning to coming back.

Always excellent. No wonder it has been around for 50 years

Many people rave about Mazzettis as being the best bakery, but that just means youve never been to DIANDA! Dianda is a staple in the Bay Area with a location in SF and one in the Peninsula (San Mateo). Their Rum Cake, Tres Leches, and Chocolate Cake with strawberries inside are my favorites!

Holy mother of Italian Cookie heaven! Ordered one of just about everything and… totally delish! Walk, drive, ride but GO! It’s the real deal!

We had a surprise birthday party for my mother this past weekend and had to get her favorite cakes from Dianda’s. She was thrilled to have these cakes at her party and they were delicious as always. Everyone enjoyed them and brought back great memories for her, family and friends who grew up on these yummy treats. The cakes were beautifully made and disappeared in a flash. We had a tiny piece of tiramisu left and she didn’t let anyone touch it cuz she wanted it for breakfast. Grazie mille!

Favorite neighborhood pastry shop in the Mission. The pastries are so delicious and the bakers are always so friendly.

Grew up celebrating our birthdays with delicious cakes and pastries from Dianda’s Italian Bakery… Can’t say enough about their variety of freshly baked cakes, pastries and cookies. My favorites are the St Honore cake with little eclairs filled with custard, the raspberry almond torte, the Zuppe Inglese rum soaked vake with custard filling between layers of flaky pastry, all their cookies and my favorite candy… caramele Rossana in the red wrapper, hard candy filled with a yummy sweet cream center.

best cannoli in the city. bit of a strange ordering system. They take people in a line but there is also a ticket number system, i think they ignore that, just wait in line.

I can’t believe i haven’t reviewed this place. My mother in law introduced me to this deliciousness about 9 years ago and still love their pastries.
i took away stars because their workers are RUDE AS HECK!!! You ask them what flavor things are and they give you the attitude and the stare. It would help if they had labels on their cases. But their pissy attitude hasn’t and will not stop me from getting my Dianda fix.
ST. HONORE cake is and will be the best cake I’ve ever had. One time my husband and I purchased their small $ 40 round of St. Honore just to take home and enjoy. No birthdays, no occasion. If i lived closer this would be my husbands and my birthday cake every year.
I suggest people not care about their poor customer service and just try their pastries. It has gotten pricier over the years but you will not be disappointed.

My coworker ordered a cake from them for our annual Lunar new year lunch. The cake was frozen, only part of the cake had rum on it, the wording was not centered and who ever decorated the cake obviously think it was ok to be sloppy by correcting the color that was on top of one of the cream puff by smudging the correct color on top of the wrong one.
Disappointed by this experience…

Stopped by for a tiramisu cake for the holidays. Cake was good, but the service was poor. We asked for writing on the cake, and the associate took it to the back to write. He then boxed the cake without even asking us to take a look. When we asked to see it, we found out that he really messed up the writing. The writing was illegible, not completely frosted, and left icing-​less holes in the cake. His excuse was that the cake was hard and it wasn’t easy to put frosting on it— which I’m not sure if thats referring to his poor handwriting or the holes in the cake…
He then kept rushing and badgering us asking for us to pay with cash. We had to ask twice before he would use a credit card. After that we wanted to get some cookies, and he made us pay for them separately in cash.
I would give the place 3.5 stars for the cake, — 2.5 stars for the bad service.

My family and I have been buying cakes and pastries here for probably over 30 years. We used to buy everything at their location on Green St in the North Beach and when they closed, we started buying at this location.
Unfortunately, this 30 year tradition ends today. My mother called me last week to ask me what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday this year and I specifically asked for a chocolate cake with strawberries from Dianda’s.
My mom placed the order on Thursday for pick up on Sunday. She arrived early in the morning only to find out that the cake was not there. Instead of expressing concern and trying to make this right, they all decide to interrogate my mother and treat her like she’s an idiot.
First they told her that someone already picked it up which was impossible because only 2 people knew that the cake was there, myself and my mom. Then they started interrogating her as if she was lying. They asked her how big the cake was, how many servings it was, how much it was and so on. I mean really? I understand asking what kind of cake but to ask her the rest of the questions was unacceptable.
Then they accused her of placing the order at the San Mateo location. My mom told them repeatedly that she did not. They did not believe her and they called over there anyway and low and behold, no such order was placed there.
Then it finally occurs to them to look at the receipts and it looks like they gave our cake to someone else by mistake. So after over 30 minutes of harassing my mom, they just grab another from the case, write on it and pack it. There was no apology or discount for loosing our cake.
So a few hours later, here we are getting ready to cut the cake and my mom makes a comment to me that the strawberries look really old and dry so I’m looking at it and I see that the strawberries are moldy. We then cut it open to see and the strawberries are equally as disgusting and they are brown and leaky. So we put all of it back into the box because the last thing I want to do is get sick and we go back to dianda’s again.
Also, there is no way that they didn’t see this. The baker actually took the cake to the back to write on so they were fully aware that the fruit was old and moldy but yet chose to still sell it to us.
When we get there, my mom begins to talk to one of the ladies. She tells her about the rotten cake and another clerk chimes in and actually says to us that it is no moldy. My mom picks one of the strawberries up so they can take a closer look and one of them actually acknowledges that it is indeed moldy. So the clerk tells me she is going to get me another cake and I tell her that I don’t want ANOTHER cake and that I just want a refund.
Another clerk chimes in and tells me that the manager is not in until tomorrow. I mean really!?! So you want us to come back a THIRD time? I live like 25 minutes away from here and tomorrow is Monday and people work. Also, it’s not like I just didn’t like the cake and want a refund even though they should refund your money or replace it under those circumstances too. The cake was rotten for God’s sake! So that is when I started to talk and get really upset.
I told them that this was unacceptable and that after they lost my cake, harassed my mom for over 30 minutes in the morning that their solution was to replace my lost cake with a rotten one. And that instead of being at home with my family celebrating my birthday, I’m here dealing with them.
All this time there was an older Italian lady with a really nasty attitude was just listening to what was going on even though I know she is affiliated with the owners and definitely had the authority to give me my money back. Because I was so upset, getting loud and customers were starting to listen, she finally stepped in and literally tossed the money at us and made a snarky remark that she gave us 25 cents more. WOW! 25 cents was totally worth TWO trips across the city, dealing with the difficult parking, having my mom treated poorly for 30 minutes, a lost cake, a rotten cake, ending up with NO birthday cake, having to get really upset before getting a refund, having the money tossed at me like we were a piece of garbage AND me having to take 1.5 hours out of my birthday to deal with this. Thank you so much for your generosity. I don’t know what I would do without that extra 25 whole cents. What a bitch!
After 30 years of buying a ton of cakes, after recommending them to all my friends and family all of these years and being one of their biggest supporters, it’s a shame that it had to end this way. I will never ever step foot in this place again and I have already begun reaching out to my network to tell them what happened to us and that I don’t want them buying me and surprising me with anymore cakes from here.
Luckily, I live in SF where bakeries are a dime a dozen. Schubert’s and Ambrosia are about to get a lot more business from us and I don’t have to drive all the way out to the mission.

Dianda’s is another member of the old school SF bakery family. Victoria, Schubert’s, Stella, Dianda’s. The bakery where every SF native (especially if they’re Italian) goes for their cakes & cannoli. I love Tartine, but that’s not where they’re going to go for cannoli, you know what I mean? We’re talking old school.
Their St. Honore cake is the only cake one of my bf’s will have for her birthday.
Their rum cake is the only cake my man actually likes. Really, he’s just not a cake guy. But Dianda’s rum cake? He’s all over it.
Anything w almond they do like poetry. The almond torte has a HUGE following. Apparently, the tradition is every Christmas you ship this almond torte out to your loved ones. So, what I want to know is… where’s my Christmas almond torte? I’ve never received one!!! I’d like an almond torte via special delivery… who wouldn’t?
Naturally, I’ve lamented this to my man. So I should be getting one delivered to me right before December 25^th.
They were sold out of rum cake. So we got Mexican wedding cookies, almond coconut cookies, & the almond puff pastries that look like mini biscotti. With one fedoretti.
The fedoretti…
an almond pastry base topped w a chocolate rum cream & covered in chocolate. It’s wonderful. We noshed it before we got to the car.
On the way out, I spotted the patty cakes & the strawberry rolls. The patty cakes are chocolate cakes filled w whipped cream and covered in chocolate. That just sounds amazing to me. 2 of my favorite things together in one heavenly piece of work. The strawberry roll looks positively dreamy.
Next time.
It’s on.
Over 50 years old & still a must do.
5 stars.

Los mejores pastelitos. Los de chocolate y de frutas son los favoritos. Son deliciosos! Recomendado!

My first time at Dianda’s was yesterday. I went in to pick up a cake for my coworker’s birthday. I specifically wanted tres Leches. They had a variety of choices! Strawberries, Pineapple, Banana, and even Mango!
The cake was nice and moist. Their custard was light and palpable. I’m usually not a fan of custard so this is a high compliment.
The decoration on the cake is old fashioned but tasteful. Over all I’d say I had a pleasant experience. I think I’m lacking the nostalgia that others have for this place. After all I’m an L.A. raised gal, but all in all 4 stars!

My first experience (there have been several more since) with Dianda’s was somewhat mixed. A coworker had brought in two large boxes with a selection of most of their cakes, and I, in my greed, decided it was wise to attempt to try every single one of them. Sugar, cream, and carb overload ensued twenty minutes later for this clever lactose-​intolerant Asian.
Highlights? Definitely their chocolate strawberry cake and their tiramisu, both of which were pretty fantastic. Their banana cake? Not bad, if you’re into bananas, but I certainly prefer mine in pie form. Their rum puff cake, alas, was a little disappointing.
Texture wise, their cakes are all of the sponge variety: so, nice and fluffy. Prices are also quite reasonable, given the portion sizes! A solid 3.5 stars.
***Accessibility Info***
Venue — Your typical bakery with display cases all around. Theirs are of the shorter variety, so one can easily see the top shelf, as they’re roughly eye level, even while sitting. When they’re busy, it does get a little cramped, but for the most part, maneuverability isn’t an issue.
Bathroom — Pretty sure I didn’t see any open to the public.