How can you not love a restaurant with a catchphrase like that!

Hummus Bros is one of those restaurants that I’ve been meaning to go visit for quite some time but always got pushed behind other restaurant choices. Finally, Catherine took things into her hands and arranged for us (her, Jenny and I) to check out this houmous bar. We were all, if not quite dying of curiosity, at least very curious as to how a houmous bar could operate – after all houmous has probably always been considered to be a side dish or starter of sorts.

The way it works is that they get a bowl and slather houmous around the sides and then throw some toppings on top. All the houmous is the same but it’s the toppings that differ – chickpeas, fava beans, vegetable salad, mushrooms, guacamole, chicken and chunky beef are the regulars and they also have rotating specials. Tonight’s was mexican beef spiced minced beef topped with shredded cheddar cheese & crushed tortilla chips.

The “small” serve (which is actually a regular serve) come with one warmed pitta bread and the “regular” (what I consider large) comes with two. I was pleased to see that the pitta was both wholemeal and quite chunky. A “small” and a side is recommended by the website as a decent portion. To be honest one “small” houmous each and two sides shared between the three of us was more than enough to fill. Though I must admit I couldn’t look past trying the Malabi dessert.

I was quite pleased with my chunky beef houmous. The beef was perfectly tender and very chunky, as promised. Saucy as well. With the beautiful pitta it was perfect. Though I was tempted to go for another pitta actually one was more than enough. Two would have probably left me bloated though I’m sure I would have happily finished it off. Jenny went for the mexican beef, which she seemed happy with, and Catherine the guacamole. We shared a Greek Salad and the Smoky Barbecued Aubergine with pine nuts. Both served cold the salad was nice but the aubergine wasn’t very smoky or barbecuey. My Malabi dessert (basically like a pannacotta with date honey (tasted like golden syrup) poured over it) was very pretty but nothing stunning. To finish our waiter was really nice and served us with small (complimentary) glasses of mint tea.

In fact the service was perfect tonight – attentive, not pushy (even when we were finished and there was a line out the door we were never rushed to leave) and very friendly and patient. The atmosphere is quite nice in the restaurant. There is only enough seating for 24 on long benches although there is also a bar facing the street where people can sit. Strangely they haven’t tried to fit too many tables into the restaurant and there is more than enough space to sit comfortably and move around which is a nice change although due to the nature of the tables be prepared to sit quite close to your neighbour.

Our bill came to £15 each (including service which we happily handed over) which I think is a touch on the pricey side for what is essentially an item you can buy in a tub from the supermarket or grocers for a few quid plus some extras. Still, I can’t say we weren’t stuffed after our meal and we did enjoy our toppings.

Hummus Bros is ideal for a quick and relatively healthy meal (not the kind of place you’d really linger.) Great friendly service in a good location.