100 Montaditos

When we were in Barcelona a couple of years ago, we saw a bunch of 100 Montaditos restaurants around. We never had time to try them when we were out there, but they looked popular and affordable. They opened a branch in NYC late last year, and A suggested we try that out for the Spanish stop on our World Cup eating challenge which was a great idea.

100 Montaditos offers literally 100 different varieties of montaditos, which is what they call a mini-sandwich throughout Spain. They range from the original montaditos with meatballs or shrimp, to "premium" montaditos which include tuna and serrano, as well as special gourmet combinations and sweet dessert montaditos. Since choice can be overwhelming, they also have preset selections with 5 montaditos each (meat lovers, veggie, Mediterranean, chocolate, and "black label"). The menu also has non-montadito options like variations of fries and potatoes, meat and cheese plates, and even paella.

We arrived for a late lunch in the middle of the first half of the Korea-Algeria game, and got a table in the brightly lit back room which was equipped with multiple TVs. We decided to go with two of the pre-designed combinations - the meat lovers ($7) and the Mediterranean ($9) - and an order of fries ($3).

For the fries, we chose the fries with cheese sauce and Serrano bites. These came out first and were a great snack during the game. The fries were really crispy on the outside, like they were double-fried, but the insides were still nice and soft. The cheese sauce was well-distributed and melted. The pieces of Serrano ham were also fried up and crumbled, and were a nice replacement for bacon. Although the montaditos ended up being way more filling than we expected by the end of our meal, so much so that we didn't really need the fries, these fries were our favorite part of the meal!

We both split all of the sandwiches so we could try them all. After we ate them all, we ranked them and then averaged our scores. Although our exact rankings weren't the same, the averages sorted them out into roughly four tiers. In order of least favorite to favorite, here's what we tried (with the montadito menu number listed since there are a lot of similar sounding ones).

10. Smoked salmon and blue cheese with crispy onion and honey mustard (#75, from the Mediterranean set).

This was the sandwich we both liked least. You could taste the salmon, the blue cheese, the onions and the honey mustard. But they didn't go well together at all in our opinion. The mustard and salmon weren't too bad together, but the blue cheese was just weird with it.

8 (tie). Garlic pork loin with fresh tomato, lettuce and mayo (#52, from the Meat Lovers set).

This was the first montadito that M tried and all she could think was that it tasted like a boring turkey sandwich with mayo. A found it bland and boring and perhaps put it best as, "what's the point?"

8 (tie). Smoked salmon and hardboiled egg with lettuce and mayo (#72, from the Mediterranean set).

M thought this was okay. She could taste the salmon, mayo, and egg but there was a bit too much mayo in her opinion. A thought the smoked salmon didn't come through at all, and it tasted just like mayo, egg, and lettuce.

6 (tie). Chicken with green pepper, fresh tomato and ali oli (#45, from the Meat Lovers set).

Ali oli is basically Spanish garlic mayonnaise (aioli). It's hard to go wrong with garlic mayo. A thought this was nothing special and that all the flavor came from the ali oli. M thought this was going to be green bell pepper when we ordered it but it seemed more like poblano peppers. She liked that the chicken wasn't dry and thought the garlic mayo was a good match for it.

6 (tie). Philly steak with cheddar cheese, piquillo pepper (roasted red pepper) and crispy onion (#29, from the Meat Lovers set).

The main thought we both had about this one was that it was incredibly salty. The beef didn't have much flavor on its own, but M liked that the texture was chipped meat like an actual cheesesteak and not larger pieces. The cheese was the same as the one in the fries - like a salty cheez whiz type of sauce - but it all just seemed too salty.

2 (tie). BBQ pulled pork with cream cheese, bacon and ali oli (#47, from the Meat Lovers set).

This sandwich had a good BBQ sauce flavor. A found the ali oli here to be an odd addition and kind of weird with the sweet pulled pork, but M really liked it here mixed with the BBQ sauce. Probably why M ranked it 3rd on her list but A had it a few spots lower on his. The bacon was also a strange addition and not really necessary. We didn't notice any cream cheese.

2 (tie). Anchovies with fresh tomato, mayo and pepinillo (pickles from Spain) (#77, from the Mediterranean set).

We both agreed that the anchovies were a bit fishy, but in the end they're anchovies. The mayo added a bit of cool richness, and the pickles were great. They weren't overly tart, but they offered a really mild, balanced flavor. In the end, it reminded A of a slightly salty herring sandwich from Amsterdam. M didn't quite get the same flavor connection when she ate it, but also thought it was good.

2 (tie). Tuna and hardboiled egg with piparra (mild Spanish pepper) and mayo (#22, from the Mediterranean set).

We both really enjoyed this sandwich. The tuna wasn't fishy at all since it was cooked, and we both thought the mayo paired really nicely. M thought the egg added some creaminess, and A thought that the piparra acted like relish even if M didn't remember it being there. A described it fairly aptly as something of a deconstructed tuna salad sandwich.

2 (tie). Tuna and piquillo pepper with crispy onion and ali oli (#23, from the Mediterranean set).

The piquillo peppers were both sweet and sour and were really good with the crispy onions and tuna. A didn't think the onions added any flavor, but they added a lot of crunch. M liked it more than A, but he still thought it was good.

1. Meatballs with bacon (#11, from the Meat Lovers set).

Three meatballs in tomato sauce with a piece of bacon underneath them. The meatballs had a lot of flavor to them, which made this our favorite sandwich. The tomato sauce gave it a bit of an Italian taste as well as Spanish. The bacon was probably unnecessary. It didn't really add much to the sandwich. A thought maybe if the bacon were like Serrano ham, it was just added to make the sandwich taste more Spanish. There are some other meatball montaditos with manchego cheese and other stuff that we think sound really interesting for next time. At least we know the meatballs themselves are tasty!

The food at 100 Montaditos doesn't scream Spanish since some of these sandwiches could be found in other cuisines, but we know it's definitely Spanish since we saw the chain while we were there. It's a solid and relatively inexpensive option that we were glad we took advantage of for the challenge. We both agreed that the fries topped with cheese and crispy Serrano ham were our favorite thing to eat, but we'd certainly go back to try other sandwiches and their other food.

100 Montaditos is at 176 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village.