Humming along with hummus

Great lunch places around Holborn, Episode II: Hummus Bros place on Southampton Row.

They’re not really doing themselves any favours with their marketing – first step of opening a different style lunch joint: show your customers what they’ll be getting, with photos of some dishes. I’m pretty adventurous foodwise, but ‘hummus’ can mean a variety of things, and when I walked in I had no idea whether it meant a side dish, a shared bowl, a sandwich, whatever.

As it turns out, you get a bowl of hummus – crushed chickpeas and tahini, whatever ‘tahini’ is – with a topping. An unusual combo, since you’d expect a ‘base layer’ to be something plain like rice or pasta, with the topping carrying the flavour. But somehow, with a couple of small pitta breads, it all works really well together. And the side dishes – aubergines, beans, salad – are fresh too.

So: chalk up another win in the local lunch scene, like the Onion sandwich shop I discovered a few weeks back. Not bad at all.