Hummus Bar and Grill
Saturday, August 9, 2008 22:39I’ve been meaning to try Hummus Bar and Grill for a few weeks after reading about it in a Chowhound post. The main attraction at Hummus Bar and Grill are the small sampler plates (usually you get 8-10 varieties). You can get them with your main meal at the cost of $6 extra, or you can have then as your main for $10. Refills of any of the samples as well as the bread are free.
We got an assortment of plum tomato salad, tabouli, baba ghanouj, chopped liver paste (more delicious than it sounds), egg salad (fantastic), carrot salad, beet salad, roasted eggplant with tahini, pickled cauliflower, and a bunch of other things I can’t remember the name to, but were equally as delicious. My favorite was the egg salad and chopped liver plates.
The BF ordered the regular hummus, which was rich and creamy. It seems a bit expensive to charge $7 for a plate of hummus, but it was delicious. A little heavy on the extra tahini in the middle, but that can be avoided.
I was starving when I got there, so I became a bit of a glutton when I ordered. I should have just ordered the assortment of salads because those were more than enough, but I ended up ordering a skewer of sweetbreads with a side of mashed potatoes and cabbage salad ($10). This was the first time I had sweetbreads and based on this, I don’t think I like it. There was an iron-like organ-meat taste, which I usually like, but also a fatty richness and tough chewiness which in combination didn’t work so well for me. The mashed potatoes were good and chunky, the way I like it, but I could have gone without the cabbage salad.
In hindsight, I would have been happier sticking with just eating the salad assortment. The fresh baked flat-bread that came with it was fantastic: chewy and crispy in all the right places. The service was pretty mediocre and we had to wait a long time between bread refills, but the food is worth it.
View Larger Map
Hummus Bar and Grill
18743 Ventura Blvd
Tarzana CA
(818) 344-6606
Louise absolutely LOVES filthy, cheap places! (See more of her posts). You can also find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.
Foodeater says:
August 29th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Wow, the salads look great. I sure wish I could have tried them. I too went there after seeing all the raving reviews on Chowhound, only to be very disappointed by how the restaurant was trying to scam us on the price and back up their justification for doing so with very insulting comments about the “Israeli mentality”. I’ll be blogging about my bad adventure there soon, but to make a long story short, if only one person wants to get the salad sample and another person wants to order something else, they’ll totally screw you and charge for two full orders of the salads (because, and this is their excuse, Israeli’s will always cheat and eat off the other persons plate. Seriously, they said that to me). Pretty ridiculous if you ask me! I didn’t end up getting what I wanted because I wasn’t about to shell out over $20 for what the menu states is a $10 meal. It’s too bad too because your salad photos look amazing and make me want it even more! I’m sure the food is delicious but I’m not shelling out double to only to be served a nice big side-order of attitude.
Louise says:
September 4th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Wow, I can’t believe they said that thing about the Israeli mentality! That’s so offensive.
Yeah, next time I’m definitely going to skip ordering a full meal and just get the salad.
Foodeater says:
September 5th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Louise, in that case, make sure to go alone… otherwise they’ll want to charge your friend for a salad even if they don’t want any!