Critic's Review
These places are closing like wild fire. It looks like several franchisees are folding up. Platation, Pembroke Pines, Coral Gables, Orlando: all closed within a week.
Review 9/10/14
"Montadito" is a small sandwich in Spanish, and like the name of the place, they have 100 to choose from. Wednesday is Sale day; when they first opened all 100 sandwiches were $1.00, but now #1-20 are $1 and #21-100 are $2. Still not Las Olas Price, and I kinda like Spanish food.
They call this "Fast Casual", but it's really a fast food format. They don't even bring the food to your table and there's no beverage station. You order your food, they give you your beverage, and you find a table.
I got there just after 2pm and much of the lunch crowd was just finishing up. Everyone who works here is a kid, so it just doesnt feel like a restaurant. There are a lot of families with kids and the place is loud. They serve beer and Sangria which both go well with the food they serve here.
No lemon or sweeteners without asking. They had lemon but I was only offered Equal, so I passed on that.
The have "collections"; pre-selected sandwiches for those who are either totally lazy or who have no idea what they like. I chose to select my own.
They call out your name and you go get your plate. Service ends there; you're on your own with your food in the dining room at that point. I got 4 sandwiches, #14, #58, #80 and #91. The total with tax and iced tea was $8.89.
The first sandwich was the #14 (Meatballs, Manchego and piparro (mild Spanish pepper)
This wasn't bad; a lot of bread for the tiny meatballs. The peppers were weird and served no purpose.
Next I tried the #80 (Anchovies, Manchego Cheese, Piquillo Pepper, Arugula and Mayo).
Not much anchovy and I was hoping for something freshly fried, but this was really good. Mayo on anchovies works. Again, a little too much bread. But a tasty bite.
Next was #58 (Chorizo, Mancheo, tomato, arugula)
I didn't like this at all, mainly because the chorizo wasn't good. Spanish cured chorizo can be really good or very bad, this wasn't a good one. Not a very good tomato either.
Note there are no condiments here; no salt, pepper, mustard ketchup or hot sauce. Not that I'd want any of that stuff, but if you do, there isn't any.
Next, and finally, I had the #91 Caprese (Serrano Ham, Tomato, Mozzarella, Tomato and Pesto), which comes on the "Chapata" Bread instead of the finger hoagies.
Eh, not bad. Fresh basil would have been better than the pesto. The bread was better than the other sandwiches. A $2 slider. A Good deal I guess.
On the plate with the sandwiches, you also get potato chips. I didn't eat any of those.
Conclusion
This is a franchise operation with an interesting premise, but to me it doesn't really work. The small "sub" sandwiches are too much bread, and at the regular price it's just not much food for $2.50. Would you rather have 4 of these meatball sandwiches or a meatball parm from a pizzeria at the same price?
It's good for sampling Spanish flavors at fast food prices. But the ambiance is very fast foodish; I couldn't see coming here for dinner.