We've done it at home once with a smallish one, maybe 16-18 inches, and were a bit disappointed. We followed the recipe, but .... We decided next time we went to our go to fancy place that we'd try octopus if it was on their specials menu, since it's something they don't serve all the time. And we don't go there too often as we usually drop a bundle when we do since we go all out with 4-courses and get a nice bottle of wine too.
We did buy some tiny baby octopus once at an Italian market, but when we got it home and opened it, whew, the ammonia smell about knocked us down, so that went in the garbage.