Hummus - Is it just us?

Hummus is something that I've only discovered fairly recently. For some reason, pureed chickpeas didn't hold any special allure for the longest time. Then my girlfriend and I went to the Pita Jungle in Scottsdale. She'd told me how good the hummus was there. I was addicted. The service would suck, but the hummus was always top notch.
Then her best friend told us about this place in Glendale she'd tried with her boyfriend. They said the Shish Kabob House at 51st Ave and Olive/Dunlap (I forget which it is there) had amazing hummus. After a few months, we finally decided to try it on a whim. Shish Kabob's interior screams at me that it used to be a Japanese restaurant. The hummus was indeed incredible. Creamy, flavorful, and the bowl was usually cleaned down to the enamel. The rest of food was good as well. I love the gyros and my g/f loves the koubedah. But the hummus is what draws us from our N. Phoenix base of operations.
I generally pour over any restaurant reviews I can get my hands on. The New Times, AZCentral, Chowhound, you name it. So whenever we see a place that gets raves for hummus, we like to try it. Sadly, we've been let down by each and every one compared to Shish Kabob House. Sabuddy, Persian Room, Doobys. I lose track of all the places. Sabuddy's just struck us as odd. The tahini sauce pooled in the middle just overwhelmed the rest of it. Persian Room and Dooby were just tasteless.
So tonight my g/f had a hankering for hummus. On the way to SKH, we got to wondering. Is it just us? Do SKH and Pita Jungle, the only two places where we actually like the hummus, do it differently than the rest of the world? Our only real exposure to hummus has been in the Valley. How can so many other places get raves, yet we'd enjoy kindergarten paste more?