Thursday, January 23, 2014

Dollarmania at 100 Montaditos (food)

100 Montaditos is a bar/restaurant chain that originated in Spain and recently opened in the West Village. The main draw here are the montaditos, which are mini-sandwiches priced from $1 to $2.5. There are 100 different sandwiches on the menu, but they are mostly simple combinations of a much smaller set of core ingredients. Every Wednesday, they have a Dollarmania promotion where all the sandwiches and appetizers are $1, while domestic beers are $2 and imported beers are $3.

The interior is really nice and it's probably a great place to have a drink and eat some mini-sandwiches while watching the many big screen TVs. The staff is also very nice and friendly. But to get a good feel for the menu, I decided to get 20 or so sandwiches to go. I was there early and it still took a while. I'm not quite sure they are well equipped to handle very large volume. And at these prices, I'm sure they get very busy later on in the evenings.

Overall, I thought the sandwiches were pretty good. The bread had a nice chew and some of the ingredients were quite good. For the price, especially during Dollarmania, it's excellent value. The sandwiches were ok in size, coming in at a little larger than a metro card each.


Their standard sandwich is about the same size as a metro card but about 20-30% longer.


Their chapata bread, which is essentially a ciabatta, is a little smaller.

The order of brava potatoes was huge, and would be a steal even at the regular menu price of $2.

My thoughts on the core ingredients that make up the 100 combinations of sandwiches:

Cheese: Brie, Blue, Manchego, Cheddar, Mozarella
All their cheeses were good, and I particularly liked the brie and the manchego.

Meats: Chorizo, Salami, Grilled Chicken, Ham, Meatballs, BBQ Pork, Serrano Ham, Philly Steak, Turkey, Hot Dog
The Serrano ham really stood out, having real flavor without being too salty. The meatballs came in a marinara sauce and tasted exactly like chef boyardee. All the other meats tasted pretty generic, and the chorizo was disappointingly bland.

Seafood: Shrimps, Smoked Salmon
The shrimps were super tiny as expected, but actually had decent texture. I found the smoked salmon very salty.

Accompaniments: Ali Oli, Brava Sauce, Red Pepper, Strawberry Jam, Crispy Onion
The brava sauce had a nice kick and the ali oli sauce had a good garlicky flavor. The red peppers and crispy onions were tasty, but the portions of each were too small to really have an impact. One of the sandwiches I ordered had the jam but they didn't put any on.

I didn't order any of the dessert sandwiches. If you're only interested in the food and not looking for a good place to have a drink, you can still have a good time ordering the excellent brava potatoes (that come with both sauces for dipping) and anything with Serrano ham or cheese on it. Overall, I'm sure I'll be back to load up on potatoes and sandwiches during Dollarmania, and would definitely stay for a few drinks if I lived in the area.

176 Bleecker St
(between Sullivan St and Mac Dougal St)
Manhattan, NY

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