100 Montaditos 8565 SW 24th Street Miami, FL 33155 (Westchester Mall)
Chain restaurant review
5 Stars
The first 100 Montaditos opened on a small beach in Islantilla, Huelva, Spain, by Jose Maria Capitan in 2000. The name comes from the ancient Spanish culinary habit of filling small slices...
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100 Montaditos 8565 SW 24th Street Miami, FL 33155 (Westchester Mall)
Chain restaurant review
5 Stars
The first 100 Montaditos opened on a small beach in Islantilla, Huelva, Spain, by Jose Maria Capitan in 2000. The name comes from the ancient Spanish culinary habit of filling small slices of bread with various ingredients found in the kitchen. Hence, Jose Maria Capitan and staff came up with 100 different proposals for a Montadito. They now have over 350 eateries in Spain, 34 in Italy, 20 in Portugal, 13 in Mexico, 5 in the United States, 3 in Guatemala, 2 in Columbia, and one each in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and Ecuador, with Panama rounding out their international holdings. According to Wikipedia, the holding company in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy in 2015. They went from a total of 17 here to 5 and paused any further U.S. Expansions for now.
Suffering from insolation inundation one only finds in Southern Florida, I was thankful for the cool, crisp air conditioned air that hit my face right before my olfactory senses were immediately attacked by the aroma of freshly baked bread as I entered this location. My server is Leo. He warmly greeted me in Spanish. He immediately switched to flawless English when I told him I don't speak that Romance language. Leo informs me that everything is made to order. I faked a slight cough to wipe the drool from my lips and asked Leo for a Number 70 and 91 Montaditos.
Considering they bake the bread and make each Montadito to order, Leo was back in no time with my order. Before Leo had retracted his serving arm, I had Number 70 firmly in my mitts and headed straight toward my eagerly awaiting palate. This particular Montadito was a congenial concoction of Morcilla, roasted peppers, and an out-of-this-world chipotle mayo spread—the bread. The bread was amazing. Crisp, flaky crust, springy, chewy interior was what all breads aspire to be. The homemade Morcilla (sausage) was bursting with savory succulence, and the peppers were perfectly roasted.
Forcing myself to move on from Number 70 (oh, how I love thee), I greedily grabbed Number 91 and, without ceremony, began chowing down. Number 91 was lovingly stuffed with Serrano ham, mozzarella, fresh tomato, arugula and made on-site pesto sauce. Serrano is regularly applied to all dry-cured ham products in Spain instead of jamon de York, which is cooked whole on the bone. Needless to say, this was as spectacular as Number 70. That bread, though!! I am confident they don't dry-cure the hog in the back, but Holy Porky Pig, this was phenomenal.
The Big Boy says, “This chain food, scratch that. This food is uneffinbelievably fantastic. This is it if you ever needed a reason to visit the Miami metro area other than your Aunt's ambrosia salad.”