The Endless Pizza Quest resumes! In this edition, I traveled up to Midtown Toronto to try a fairly new member of the city's continuously growing pizza scene.
Diavola Pizza, which opened earlier this spring, is in fact a sister restaurant to the Slayer Burger location next door on the corner of Yonge Street and Glebe Road (we indeed reviewed the Riverside Slayer outpost just a couple months ago). As such, Diavola offers the same desserts as Slayer, along with one of their signature pies drawing inspiration from their cheeseburger sibling.
Alas, that is not what was ordered here. Instead, you've got their take on a five cheese pizza (the one you see in the back) and their namesake pie 'The Diavola" with all the pickled toppings in the front of the photo.
Here's a closer look at the "Cheese Lovers". It is indeed a fromagey blend of mozzarella, goat cheese, parmesan, blue cheese and standard orange cheddar... with the goat cheese standing out the most and the blue cheese fairly invisible within.
As you have probably noticed, Diavola is a Roman-style pizza spot... thus the rectangular shape and smaller square sized slices. This works mostly to the disadvantage of the pizza, sadly: while the bread is light and airy, both mini-pies have just way way too much bread compared to everything else. This might've been okay-ish if the crust were a little less over-baked (and there is some pleasant buttery taste throughout this cheese pizza) but instead you're getting just a lot of bites that are nothing but bread. The centre of the slices are filled with goodness sure, but that's barely even half of the whole pizza.
Regarding that goodness... as far as cheese pizzas go this one is pretty decent. I wish the blue cheese was way more of a presence rather than seeming to blend within everything, but all in all this pie does smell really good and the mix of cheeses does keep the taste more dynamic than a typical (frankly boring) cheese pizza. A good balance of sharp and creamy. Goat cheese is, of course, always delicious and I'm pleased there was plenty of it on here.
Onwards, to the title track! The namesake pizza is indeed quite loaded: spicy N'duja, hot Italian sausage, jalapenos, pickled onions, peperoncinis... quite a mix of peppery sting matching a pickled type of sting.
The sausage and Ndjua work together successfully (the sausage is fairly juicy and slightly salty), bringing the affair plenty of robust sharp spice... and the pickled onions do well to cut into that as well. However, the rest of this pizza is just very... meh. This is your generic mozzarella cheese that melts perfectly fine but provides nothing in the flavour department. It's just there, likewise the tomato sauce. Very forgettable (as in, I have absolutely nothing else I can say about it).
It really are the toppings and the distinct crunch of the edges doing all the work on this Diavola pizza (which loosely translates as "devil" pizza), and there's only so far that can take you when those core elements (sauce and cheese) have nothing going on for them. There is some quality spiciness to this one, thanks to the earthier Nduja and the stinging jalapenos... but like the cheese pizza (where at least those different cheeses combined into something more fully flavoured and interesting) again there is just far too much empty space here. Too much nothing, not enough pockets of something.
Overall? I'll give some points for creativity: the pickled onions are an inspired choice, and the distinct spice of the Nduja is always a good call.
Certainly not a bad pizza... there are good components to it and quite a few pretty tasty moments. However, the mediocrity of the base elements combined with the bread-to-anything-else ratio being so askew... it's too much to overcome and sadly I can't really recommend this spot as a "must try". It is a fairly new spot and it's entirely possible there is still some growth to be had, some margins to work out and recipes that can definitely be improved upon.
As currently, though... I'm going to score Diavola a 'B--'. Some good concepts and the bread/dough is quality (you'll definitely get a good sense of that) but a few key flaws drag it well below anything I'd strongly suggest seeking out. Probably a fringe Top 100 pizza in Toronto.
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