95 CLUB: chicken, fresh tomato, lettuce and mayo

It's a club sandwich all right, so a tad on the bland side. I'd have added bacon for full clubbiness, but then again I wouldn't eat any club that something something my member, or however that goes.

Not a bad ending for the savory portion of the menu, but a tad underwhelming.

Montaditos down: 95
Montaditos to go: 5
Next: 96 Hazelnut spread with almonds

94 CESAR: chicken, manchego cheese, lettuce, crispy onion and caesar sauce

I taste chicken. It's good chicken, but I'm not tasting much else.

Oh, there it is, some lettuce and Caesar dressing, in back. Not sure I'm getting any manchego cheese.

Not bad, not great. One savory sandwich to go!

Montaditos down: 94
Montaditos to go: 6
Next: 95 CLUB: chicken, fresh tomato, lettuce and mayo

93 PHILLY STEAK CLUB: philly steak, fresh tomato, lettuce and chipotlealioli

Now, this is a D.C. steak-and-cheese. It won't make my 16-sandwich championship playoff, but I wouldn't refuse one if you had an extra.

Montaditos down: 93
Montaditos to go: 7
Next: 94 CESAR: chicken, manchego cheese, lettuce, crispy onion and caesar sauce

72 Smoked salmon, hard boiled egg, lettuce and mayo

Smoked salmon without cream cheese was less different from smoked salmon with cream cheese than I would have thought. If I have a choice, though, I'll take cream cheese with my smoked salmon.

Montaditos down: 72
Montaditos to go: 28
Next: 73 Smoked salmon, cream cheese, piquillo pepper and arugula

70 Goat cheese, fresh tomato, lettuce and anchovies

This sandwich is so odd, I couldn't even get an in-focus picture of it. Well, at least the idea is weird. I love goat cheese. Love it. The goatier the better. And so when I saw that 100 Montaditos used goat cheese on only two sandwiches and put anchovies on one of them -- the only one in the regular-bread collection -- I scratched my head. What a missed opportunity for a great ingredient.

If you don't like anchovies, there you go. If you like anchovies, you might still acknowledge their ability to overwhelm other ingredients and wonder why they would be coupled with the more delicate delicacy that is the cheese of the goat.

I can't say I disliked this montadito. There was something illicitly satisfying in enjoying two outlaw ingredients at once. Still, it would be nice if goat cheese got a chance to shine in some other sandwiches, with less-assertive partners.

Montaditos down: 70
Montaditos to go: 30
Next: 71 Smoked salmon, cream cheese and arugula

52 Garlic pork loin, fresh tomato, lettuce and mayo

Hey, wait a minute! This garlic pork loin is not the dry, bland garlic pork loin I tasted back in the blue-cheese section of the menu. Just look at it! Maybe that's why this garlic pork loin is just now starting its own section? Maybe 100 Montaditos cooks up both a supporting-role garlic pork loin and a feature-performer garlic pork loin?

Whatever the explanation, I am not unhappy about this development. This is good, bacony stuff. LTM would not have beeen my preferred toppings, but that didn't matter. This sandwich is all about the meat.

Montaditos down: 52
Montaditos to go: 48
Next: 53 Garlic pork loin,manchego cheese, green pepper and fresh tomato

48 BBQ pulled pork, cheddar cheese, lettuce and mustard

I have to admit, I didn't "get" this one. I wouldn't put anything other than cole slaw on barbecue pork. Cheddar cheese? Yellow mustard? And that's not the first weird use of yellow mustard I've encountered at 100 Montaditos -- maybe them Spaniard types have a different relationship with yellow mustard than we do?

But the darn sandwich was pretty good. And then I had an epiphany: chili dog. We put yellow mustard, improbably, on chili dogs. Cheddar cheese, too, at least sometimes, sometimes, for that matter.

Against my better judgment, I really liked this sandwich.

Montaditos down: 48
Montaditos to go: 52
Next: 49 BBQ pulled pork, crispy onion and chipotle alioli

44 Chicken, lettuce and chipotle alioli

This montadito among 100 was pretty good. I have to chalk it up to chicken in its natural habitat. Good chicken, lettuce, mayonnaise. I didn't notice the chipotle part this time, but I have no doubt it played a role in elevating this montadito beyond blandness.

Montaditos down: 44
Montaditos to go: 56
Next: 45 Chicken, green pepper, fresh tomato and ali oli

40 Burger, bacon, lettuce, fresh tomato and mayo

This one strikes me as dum. So dum I'm not even going to bother to type the b.

It got better on later bites, though, which brings up an interesting point about the structure of these 100 Montaditos montaditos. That's not a big hinge of bread, and so sometimes some of the ingredients get stuck in the crook. In this case, the extremely bland gray burger was all I got on the first bite, but the sandwich worked better when I could get all the ingredients together. Not great, but better.

Still, there's really no call for a hamburger montadito. Let's move on.

Montaditos down: 40
Montaditos to go: 60
Next: Hot dot, ketchup and mustard

34 Blue cheese, anchovies, lettuce and fresh tomato (whole-grain bread)

The first bite of this picky-eaters-need-not-apply 100 Montaditos sandwich started out interesting but things got very salty very fast.

I'm thinking blue cheese and anchovies should generally be kept apart, and both -- especially anchovies -- work better in supporting roles.

Montaditos down: 34
Montaditos to go: 66
Next: 35 Blue cheese, arugula, crispy onion and honey mustard

30 Philly steak, cheddar cheese, fresh tomato and lettuce

A wise amateur culinary historian named Joe H. wrote a message-board post some years back explaining the difference between the Philly cheesesteak and the popular-in-D.C. "steak and cheese." Before I read that post, I had rolled my eyes at the offer of "lettuce, tomato and mayo?" with such a sandwich. I was in Philly mode, and I wanted fried onions, hot peppers and maybe ketchup with that hot sandwich, not hamburger condiments.

So 100 Montaditos' No. 30 starts to sound like a steak-and-cheese, but once I get my mind set for those, I'm wanting mayo. Where's my mayonnaise? Without it, the effect is more along the lines of a very bland, boring cheeseburger.

Montaditos down: 30
Montaditos to go: 70
Next: 31 Philly steak, blue cheese, green pepper and ali oil

26 Tuna, fresh tomato, lettuce and mayo

You know how I said the 24th montadito at 100 Montaditos tasted like a good ol' "tuna-fish sandwich"? Well, looking at the menu description, you'd think this would garner that description. But not quite. It was just bland. Salt and pepper on the tomatoes would have helped. Maybe "ali oil" instead of mayonnaise? I guess what I'm saying is that No. 26 is a lot like No. 21, which it should be, since they're pretty much the same. Sometimes this menu needs an editor. If only I knew an editor.

Montaditos down: 26
Montaditos to go: 74
Next: 27 Philly steak and cheddar cheese

19 Shrimp, lettuce, fresh tomato, pepinillo and mayo

Ah, yes, the pickles from Spain. Just when I was growing disenchanted with the shrimp section of the 100 Montaditos menu, these pickles that they speak of (sweet gherkins, basically) make for the tastiest yet of los montaditos de camarones.

I might even order this one again someday.

Montaditos down: 19

Montaditos to go: 81

Next: 20 Shrimp, fresh tomato, piparra (mild pepper from Spain) and mayo

18 Shrimp, lettuce, piquillo pepper and ali oli

This is the first appearance of piquillo pepper on the 100 Montaditos menu, and I am here to report that it's pretty much the same as the now-ubiquitous-in-America "roasted red pepper."

And it works nicely with the casino-shrimp-cocktail shrimp, though I have to say I doubt I'll be revisiting the shrimp section of the menu once I've finished my first hundred.

Montaditos down: 18

Montaditos to go: 82

Next: 19 Shrimp, lettuce, fresh tomato, pepinillo (pickles from Spain) and mayo

17 Shrimp, lettuce, crispy onion and caesar dressing (whole-grain bread)

This is a big moment: Our first bread shift! Whole-grain! And it's not bad at all. I think I prefer the regular bread, but this is nice for a change.

Crispy onion is always a good thing, and the lettuce didn't assert itself as much as it did in No. 16. There was some sort of dressing or mayonnaise or aioli, but I wouldn't have identified it as Caesar if I hadn't know it was supposed to be Caesar.

Overall, the sandwich is on a par with No. 15, maybe slightly superior.

Montaditos down: 17
Montaditos to go: 83
Next: 18 Shrimp, lettuce, piquillo pepper and ali oli

16 Shrimp, lettuce, hard boiled egg and mayo

This may be the first dud I've experienced at 100 Montaditos.

I like the idea of the hard-boiled egg, but I saw it more than I tasted it. Maybe a little more salt? I'm not sure I'd ever use mayonnaise if I had "ali oil" at my disposal. The shrimp were lost. The lettuce was the predominant flavor. And "hard-boiled" needs a hyphen.

Bright side: The bread shines through in a case like this.

Montaditos down: 16
Montaditos to go: 84
Next: 17 Shrimp, lettuce, crispy onion and caesar dressing

15 Shrimp, lettuce and ali oil

This 100 Montaditos sandwich is a little wan-looking, with a pinkish hue, as George Constanza would say, or like a cherub's bare red ass, as Liz Phair would say, but it tastes just fine.

These are not expense-account-steakhouse-shrimp-cocktail-grade shrimp; they are Las Vegas-$1-shrimp-cocktail-grade shrimp. You get what you pay for, and there's nothing wrong with an inexpensive crustacean now and again. 

Montadito No. 15 makes me nostalgia for the days when the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino was a cozy joint full of frugal downtown gamblers, not a glitzy frat-boy wet dream.

And, of course, there are more cheap shrimp montaditos on the way. Bring 'em on.

Montaditos down: 15

Montaditos to go: 85

Next: 16 Shrimp, lettuce, hard boiled egg and mayo