SASSO, Doha's award-winning Italian restaurant, is now open at VIA Riyadh

SASSO, the Italian restaurant that made its name in Doha, has opened at VIA Riyadh. It is the brand's first branch in Saudi Arabia, and it arrives in the middle of Riyadh Season, when VIA Riyadh is one of the busiest dining addresses in the city.

The restaurant comes with a strong reputation at home. Its Al Hazm branch in Doha won Favourite Italian Fine Dining at the FACT Dining Awards Doha 2022, and the brand also runs restaurants at West Walk and Place Vendôme in the Qatari capital. When the move to Riyadh was announced in October, no opening date was given; the restaurant is now taking guests.

The Riyadh menu leans on the dishes SASSO is known for. There is Pasta Al Forno, baked fusilli with organic chicken, mushrooms and Parmesan in a creamy pink sauce, and a Wagyu Pinwheel Lasagna, rolled pasta filled with Wagyu bolognese and beef bacon. The table-side dish is the tagliatelle, tossed inside a large aged Parmesan wheel in front of you. Other plates include spicy rigatoni with burrata, a wood-fired black truffle pizza, chicken Milanese and a veal risotto topped with veal that is slow-cooked for six hours.

SASSO joins a strip of well-known international names at VIA Riyadh, the open-air dining and shopping district on Makkah Al Mukarramah Road in Al Hada, which is also home to The St. Regis Riyadh. Gymkhana, Madeo and Berenjak already serve there, and the Qatari café NOIR opened its second Riyadh branch in the same district last month. Riyadh Season began on 21 October and runs for about ten weeks, so the evenings around VIA Riyadh are at their fullest right now.

SASSO opens every day from 5pm to 1am. Booking ahead is advised, especially at the weekend, and the dress code is smart casual or business casual. Prices have not been published yet, and no online booking page has been announced, so for now a table is booked by contacting the restaurant directly.