Praised on food blogs from East Hollywood to Long Beach for its hummus, kabobs, array of salads and the irresistible hot laffa, the Hummus Bar & Grill in Tarzana is also celebrated for its welcoming atmosphere. Luckily, when new owners converted the former Hummus Bar to the Bar & Grill in 2008, they expanded seating as well as the menu.
On a recent visit, a pleasant outdoor area and a windowed seating area inside left plenty of room for the flurry of young waitstaff in black T-shirts to efficiently deliver the little bowls of spicy vegetables and pickles that begin each meal. Busy as they are, there is a feeling of camaraderie in the room, with everyone mixing Hebrew and English, offering a particularly Israeli warmth and zest for the moment to a Southern California style of casual dining. “Besides serving good food, what we want most is for people to feel welcome here, to feel comfortable,” manager Irit Bouskila explains.
A major attraction is the taboon, a conical oven just inside the front door, built into the bar that divides the expanded seating area and visible to all. A cook flattens balls of dough, then drops them onto the hot surface of the oven floor to cook. This is laffa — the soft, unleavened bread that is delivered steamy hot to the table immediately after the veggies. If you are smart, you will have already chosen and ordered at least one of the five kinds of hummus available. The house version, centered with olive oil and tahini, is rich and delicious, but here, the hummus also comes with garbanzo beans, mushrooms, pine nuts or beef, and, on weekends, fava beans, hard-boiled egg, and lemon and garlic sauce.
It is worth risking a burned finger to tear off a piece of hot laffa right away to scoop up some of the creamy hummus, but beware: You will want to save room for shwarma or a chicken liver, lamb or filet kabob; falafel; or fresh fish — not to mention the assorted house-made salads and side dishes. And when the laffa cools, its crackerlike consistency makes it perfect for sampling the mild, oniony chopped liver or the smoky eggplant salad.
Hummus Bar & Grill co-owner Tommy Telio is particularly proud of the shwarma, a typical Israeli combination of roast turkey threaded with lamb, sliced thin and piled high. Wrapped in torn pieces of soft laffa, drizzled with tahini, it is delicious. (A helping of crunchy, well-seasoned Israeli salad balances the richness.)
It’s a good idea to visit the restaurant with a friend or two — or five. My mother, who was a teenager during the Great Depression, not only loved the restaurant’s cumin-flavored beef soup, but was ecstatic when the waitress brought us an array of containers to take home what was almost enough for another meal. (If you are not so lucky as to have leftovers, you can now purchase Hummus Bar & Grill-made hummus and salads pre-packaged at the Whole Foods across the street.)
During the World Cup, while serious fans opted for the back room for an up-close view of the big screen TV, my husband and I enjoyed a late, leisurely lunch in the main room, watching the heart-stopping end of the Uruguay-Ghana game on the smaller screen above the bar. We cheered and gasped along with the companionable crowd of customers and staff, unable to leave the game or give up our plates of shwarma and chicken livers.
We made it to the shoot-out and Turkish coffee, but not to dessert — although desserts, too, are a specialty here. The amazing selection includes Bavarian cream pie with chocolate sauce; mallabi, a pudding with rosewater syrup; kadaif with crème and dried-fig filling; chocolate mousse; sorbet; and watermelon.
In addition to the business-lunch crowd, Hummus Bar & Grill customers are a mix of neighborhood Israelis, L.A. foodies in search of laffa, construction workers who want beef skewers, vegetarians who appreciate the salads and everyone else who wants generous portions of these bright, clean Middle Eastern flavors.
Dinner, however, is more of a family affair, with a special menu for kids that includes schnitzel. And on weekends, there are crowds all day. The restaurant is in a strip mall where above-ground parking is limited to just 30 minutes, but there is lots of free underground parking where you can stay as long as you like. Maybe even until you have found room again for dessert.
