Critic's Review
Italian Delis are a rarity in South Florida, and most of them aren't very authentic. Across the street from a Polish Deli with not very good food is Bella Monte; I thought I'd give the place a try.
There's no outside seating here, but you can almost feel you're eating outside.
Bella Monte is part cafe, part grocery store and part deli.
They have a lot of stuff you don't see much in south florida; eggplant, sausages, jalapeo stuffed with cheese.
I didn't want to just get an Italian sub, so I ordered The Sardinian; an "Exotic Sub" with peppers, sausage and onions. I also went for the add-on of tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, an extra $1, to bring the cost up to $8.95.
The service is very Long Islandish, or maybe Brooklynish. Sort of gruff but not unexpected if you're from there. The girl wrapped the sandwich very tight and I was off.
I was pretty excited about this, expecting a nice gooey sandwich with nice tomato sauce. But when I opened it I was disappointed.
Where was the cheese? There was a couple of slices of cheese underneath; it didn't look like it was properly melted. A lot of not-so-fresh green pepper and very little onion. Since I had to reheat it anyway, I decided to add some red pepper, onions and extra cheese.
I tried a little before reheating. Good sauce and good sausage, but the cut up sausage was hard to eat. It kept flopping out of the bun. Sausage sandwiches are better when the sausage is uncut.
Good food, but a poorly constructed sandwich. And for $8.95 I should get red peppers and more cheese, me thinks.
Has lots of potental and could be killer, but........