DeVivo's Italian Eatery Pizzeria & Bakery — Restaurant in Keller

My wife and I went here as we know the owners, which kinda made the experience a little more nerve wracking. If it was "meh" or actually terrible, how do I tell my buddy "your restaurant kinda sucks".

Fortunately that was NOT the case. I can say unreservedly they know what they're doing here.

When you walk in, the ordering process throws you off guard, as it's a nice restaurant with nice menus, yet you walk up to the register to order. After walking past the large counter chock full of homemade cakes, pies, brownies, and all around sweet tooth heaven, you go to the register to place your order. At most restaurants when the waiter asks you after your meal if you've saved room for dessert, the answer is almost always "absolutely not", but I bet their hit rate in getting desserts is at least 50% (especially considering the take home option).

The staff are all young people, and whatever the secret recipe is to hiring friendly, respectful teens, the Devivos have that figured out. Abbey was running the register the night we were there and was a stellar face for the business.

Now for the food...

We started off with the Brussel sprouts, and I told anyone within earshot this should just be a mandatory order for everyone who comes in. Getting a to go order of Italian cream cake? Guess what buddy, you're also paying for these Brussel sprouts and you're going to thank us for them.

For the main course, I ordered the diablo pasta, which is a cheese tortellini paired with spicy Italian sausage in a spicy cream sauce. It was de-LISH. My wife decided to go considerably less adventurous and got the grilled cheese with sweet potato fries, but yet again this did not disappoint. The grilled cheese was good (as good as a grilled cheese can be), but I've always believed I can accurately judge any restaurant that serves sweet potato fries by how good they are. Their fries are thick cut and cooked with just the right balance of crispy outside and mushy inside. Getting the sweet potato fry done right is not always easy, but they nailed it.

For dessert, I got the Italian cream to go and my wife got the red velvet cake. Abbey recommended the "brookie" (I believe that's what it was called), which is basically a cookie/brownie combo. She also made it a little special for us with the ice cream, whipped cream, oreo sprinkles, and chocolate syrup swirls around the bowl (see the pic). It was an exercise in decadence and indulgence, but I'm not one to be wasteful with what the Lord has provided.

As a heads-up, they don't serve booze but it's byob friendly, so bring your bottle of wine, flask, sixer, or whatever, and they'll provide the glasses, bottle opener, etc.

The gentleman playing live acoustic music was playing at just the right volume and was also very talented with a nice voice and solid, varied song selection.

The vibe in the place was very positive and the decor just felt right.

If I lived closer, I'd be a regular. I highly recommend it at least once to anyone in the DFW area, and consider buying a regular table if you're within a 10-15...

I chose to meet a friend here for a late breakfast based on high scoring reviews. I thought it was a full service restaurant, but it is not. You pick up a menu at the door and make your way to a counter to place your order. If you order something they need time to prepare, they will bring it to your table, and they did bring coffee refills (thanks!). We stayed and visited for quite a while, so we did refill our own water and coffee between staff visits. The food gets 4 out of 5 stars because the potatoes were undercooked and the blueberry pancake had to be searched to find berries (we thought they broughtaplain pancake). I got the Sicilian omelet, which I thought was pretty solid. The eggs on the omelet were cooked perfectly with no brown edges. The atmosphere gets 4 out of 5 stars because of the awkward placement of the drinks and flatware and other things you had to get yourself. We were not offered a tray requiring each of us to get our coffee, water, cream, sugar, napkins, flatware, condiments, etc and get it to the table. I used my pockets to avoid multiple trips. I thought the pricing was more in line of a full service restaurant but were not high enough to scare me away. Overall, it was a very pleasant meal and served as a good place to catch up with a friend. I believe if we had fussed about the undercooked potatoes, some correction would have been made, but we did not present it as an issue. The baked goods looked amazing and will be a priority to try on the next visit. Will visit again. Would be fantastic to see them step up to...

Grab a menu and decide what to order before heading to the counter. After ordering and paying your food order, they'll give you a placard to hang up at a table of your choosing. Food comes out and you eat as you normally would. Servers patrol the dining area to make sure you're doing okay. They take away finished plates while they're at it.

My group ordered several things, and we shared some. The fried calamari might be the best we've had. We order this dish almost everywhere that we go. Our favorite for the longest time has been from the Cheesecake factory. But this one might have at least tied for that spot, and that's saying a lot! The marinara sauce that comes with it was good, but didn't seem that special. What was great was how tender the squid meat was, paired with a nice crispy fried outer batter. Add a squeeze of lemon and a dash of salt and it was perfect!

I had the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich, but with the sauce on the side. After tasting the sauce, it has a pleasant level of spiciness that's not overwhelming. If you've ever had a Cajun crawfish boil, that's the flavor it reminds me of. It's a flavor that I'm definitely a fan of. There's other types of spicy that I don't tolerate very well (namely, the kind that comes from Thai restaurant). This was basically a better version of Popeye's Chicken Sandwich paired with a delicious spicy sauce.

I had a bite of the Lunch Shrimp Pasta and liked it. Wasn't bland like...