An entire restaurant devoted to hummus? Sounds a bit like airy-fairy vegetarian health food nonsense to me. At least, that was my initial reaction; I took a drunken chance on hummus one night and it paid off spectacularly. Since then I’ve been back a few times and even introduced a number of people to the place: my fiancée, my sister, and my co-workers. They shared my apprehension at first (it’s a hummus restaurant!) but all ended up really enjoying it.
The concept behind Hummus Bros is simple. You order a big bowl of hummus with your choice of topping (fig. A) and scoop it out with great big chunks of warm, perfectly soft pitta bread (fig. B).
You see, I actually really like hummus, and if you’ll excuse the hyperbole this has to be the best hummus that I’ve ever had. It has such a perfect consistency – not all thick and clumpy like the stuff you get from Tesco, but not gloopy and paste-like either. They’re clearly passionate about making good hummus.
It doesn’t even have to be vegetarian if you don’t want it to be, either. A large part of the appeal behind Hummus Bros lies in the the toppings. Why settle for just a bowl of hummus (kinda boring) when you can load it up with chunks of tender beef or chicken (delicious)? And why stop there; chuck some sun-dried tomato or feta on there too. Or both.
Then there’s the garlic and lemon juice that they put on the table in pourers. It’s amazing. I always get carried and drown everything in the stuff.
Prices are good, too. A regular bowl (which actually means a huge bowl) with your choice of topping and two pittas costs about £6 at lunch or £8 at dinner. Extra toppings range from 65p – 95p. They offer a delivery service although I’m not really sure what the deal is with that – according to their website there is an additional delivery charge of £15, which is a bit weird. I guess if you’re throwing a… hummus party? Although I don’t think that’s a thing.
I don’t mean to gush or anything, but I quite like this place. They’ve taken a simple concept – hummus in a bowl with tasty toppings and bread for dipping – and executed it perfectly. Good hummus, good prices, good service. It’s definitely up there with Busaba (which funnily enough is just a few doors down) on my list of places to go for a quick, cheap, informal bite to eat in Soho.
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