My hummus is bland compared to the restaurants. Why?

I doubt that the humus from the restaurants is homemade. All you are missing are all the conservatives, colourants, preservatives and flavours enhacers that are in the food we eat. Not to mention the dirt from the cook's hands and the grime of where it has been prepared.
Ah! and a little bit of salt.
(Work in a restaurant)

If I make it just for myself, I put bacon grease in mine.

If I make it for other people, it tastes like crap.

try a pinch of cumin & cayenne (or paprika or chili powder) no salt!

Did you put an acid in it? like lemon juice?

Salt?

Garlic?

Could be a variety of things. When you tastes the restaurants, what flavors do you taste - roll it around on your tongue for abit and see what you come up with. Try adjusting your recipe, by reducing the tahini, increasing the lemon and salt.

You can also go to Google and enter Hummus, then review a few hummus recipes and compare their ingredients proportions to your recipe's.

Try some other recipes or look at how you can perk up yours.

Your ingredients look fine, but you may need to rebalance. See what other recipes are doing. bestest hummus!!

http://www.mizfrogspad.com/Diet/Recipes/Hummus.htm I agree with a previous responder:

Add a generous pinch of cumin, and one or two pinches of cayenne red pepper. Be sure to use fresh lemon juice, not bottled (it's awful).

When hummus is spread on a dish when ready to serve, top with some sliced pickled jalapeno peppers (in my own home, I pickle home-grown Fresno chili peppers, and use those). You may want to omit the cayenne if you use jalapenos.

I love parsley, and I sprinkle lots of minced parsley on the dish, also. Paprika also can be sprinkled on (mostly decorative).
Source(s):
Over 30 years of making it!