100 Favorite Dishes, No. 6: Sassetta Shows Us How to Grill Octopus

In honor of the 2017 Best of Dallas® issue, on newsstands now, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. The charred octopus appetizer at Sassetta has proven surprisingly divisive among Dallas’ food critics. Yes,...

By Brian Reinhart

October 2, 2017

Two sauces may be a little too much, but Sassetta's octopus is still fabulous. Brian Reinhart

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In honor of the 2017 Best of Dallas® issue, on newsstands now, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year.

The charred octopus appetizer at Sassetta has proven surprisingly divisive among Dallas’ food critics. Yes, there’s a lot going on with this plate. Yes, two sauces is probably too many, especially since the green one skews herby and the red one is pure spice. Yes, there are a lot of vegetables piled on, including zucchini, cauliflower and even chickpeas.

But I can’t get over how well the kitchen at Sassetta is cooking their octopus. This is a meat Dallas still hasn’t quite embraced, unfortunately, but the preparation here should be winning over converts. Sassetta’s octopus is melt-in-your-mouth tender, never tough or chewy. And it’s grilled until charred, with a nice bite of fire and smoke. How do they give it such a phenomenal scorching without overcooking it? Skill. My hat’s off. With seafood this super, they can have fifteen sauces dueling across the rest of the plate for all I care.

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Brian Reinhart has been the Dallas Observer's food critic since spring 2016. In addition, he writes baseball analysis for the Hardball Times and covers classical music for the Observer and MusicWeb International.

Contact: Brian Reinhart

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Twitter: @bgreinhart