Monday, January 7, 2008

Reviews: Hummus Place, The Smith

Hummus Place is a little shop specializing in, well, Hummus, and has two locations: one in the East Village, and another in the Village proper. I jsut had a snack here of the hummus with phool (a fava bean) mixture, and it was warm and fresh, and slightly garlicky, and the fava bean mixture had jsut the right amount of tender strength to make it wonderful. Probably the best hummus I've ever had.

Stars: 5/5

The Smith: had a wonderful brunch here, except for a few snafus. The place has tiled walls and floor, wooden ceiling, lamps hump on hooks or attached on structures made of pipes. Reminded me vaguely of a ship. I ordered huevos rancheros, and my friend ordered a vegetarian sandwich with roasted vegetables and gruyere. We also started and shared a tomato soap. The tomato soap was delicious, and looked delicious too, with a thick, fleshy cheese topping covering the bowl in a way that reminded me of french onion soup. The soup itself was, well, tomatoey and chunky, but in a good, hearty, fresh, comfort-foody way.

The entrees took quite a while to come out, but the service was very friendly throughout, and to compensate for the extra wait time, we got a complimentary french toast with banana slices and syrup. All was forgiven, because this french toast, based off of hugely thick slices of brioche, was crusty, light, warm, fluffy, and had just enough density to lend it gravitas while at the same time melting in your mouth. The toast itself was not too sweet yet it seemed plenty sweet enough (though of course syrup helps with that). Excellent.

The sandwich was good too, except that they left the gruyere off half of it. The bread itself was tasty though. The french fries were decent but not great. They had wilted a bit, perhaps suggesting they had been left out a little too long... The huevos rancheros were quite tasty (if not as good at the ones at Shopsin's). The eggs and tortillas were fine, but the chipotle salsa was a little stingily sauced on, and was a touch dry anyway.

Overall, this was a really nice brunch place, and I'm eager to come back and try other meals. It's got a fun, young vibe to it, too, and they don't charge a fortune.

Stars: 4/5

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