$8.75 The bowl is pretty, with a base of creamy hummus drizzled with tahini sauce and sprinkled with spice, complemented by crunchy cucumber slices and dried chickpeas. Tangy Kalamata olives are at the center. It’s all fresh and delicious, like the two warm, fluffy wheat pita halves accompanying the dish. The bread is also the source of my, well, not complaint, exactly, but I wonder why restaurants often fail to balance their chips and salsa, crackers and cheese, and pita and hummus. Staff have told me that I’m not the only customer running out of conduits, leaving plenty of food to be delivered somehow to my mouth. The solution here, short of not worrying about pita because a second dish is handy, is paying for another piece of pita (for $1.50, which sadly, would put us over our $10 limit). This annoying add-on is common; recently, I had the same unhospitable option at North Cambridge’s Tilde.

Life Alive, five locations in Cambridge and Somerville