First Taste: New Vegetarian Restaurant Sin Muerte Embraces Flavors From Maricopa to Morocco

When a new spot opens in town, we're eager to check it out, let you know our initial impressions, share a few photos, and dish about some menu items. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead, a peek inside restaurants that have just opened — an occasion to sample a few items and satisfy curiosities (both yours and ours).

Sin Muerte, a vegetarian restaurant whose name translates to “without death,” offers a fresh take on plant-centric offerings, and you can globetrot one plate at a time.

Just south of Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix, the new restaurant is ownership group Instrumental Hospitality’s follow-up to Belly, the kitchen bringing South Asian-influenced flavors to Melrose and Gilbert.

Sin Muerte resides in a Spanish mission-style building that was formerly home to one of Phoneix's first funeral homes. The interior is moody. Where traditionally, the mission aesthetic calls for light, earthy tones, Sin Muerte is painted dark gray and black, with rich wood accents and geometric tile. It’s a little goth, without becoming gothic.

It touches on religious elements – pews act as booths and a red halo light hangs over the host stand – but there's nothing holier-than-thou about the restaurant's approach, as the menu cheekily notes: "we're mostly vegan, but if we want to fold some really good cheese into something, we will."

The menu draws from areas that are geographically parallel to Phoenix, stretching “somewhere between Maricopa and Morocco” with a variety of hot and cold dips, salads, small plates, and pastas.

Of the small plates, lychee ceviche is the star. It is playful and bright. The Asian fruit is brined and comes sitting in a vibrant pool of carrot, turmeric, ginger, and chile oil. The lychee is just the right texture to mimic fish and offers a lightly sweet, citrusy note that is balanced by the earthiness and spice of the broth, which was so good it inspired an extra order of pita just to sop it up.

The dips balance hot and cold, silky and textural, and show off how the best vegetarian dishes make you forget about meat altogether. They come with fresh pita bread, puffy and charred from the restaurant’s brick oven.

In the hummus dish, served with a smoked mushroom and walnut ragu, the creamy chickpeas are a blank canvas for the smoky tomato sauce, enriched by the fattiness of the walnuts and meaty mushrooms. Another warm dip is made from caramelized eggplant and cashew yogurt. The dish – which came highly recommended – has a char that provides a bitter earthiness that the tart richness of cashew yogurt cuts through.

Next up was the corn pasta. Gnocchi sardi, a ridged, dumpling-shaped pasta with a little pocket to catch cashew cream sauce, is topped with roasted sweet corn, pasilla pepper, and roasted pepitas. The chile pepper sprinkled on top brings a nostalgic smile to your face as it evokes the classic flavor of Fritos Chili Cheese chips. The spice is calmed by the brightness of corn kernels and the crunch of pumpkin seeds.

Among the hits, there was one miss. On a recent visit, we tried the rotating dessert, which that day was a bread pudding with dates and pistachios. It lacked the sweet, gooey texture typical of the dessert. Despite a dollop of whipped cream, it was dry and scorched around the bottom. While this may not deter all diners, particularly those who love the char of a brick oven, there is always the option to drink one's dessert.

A scan of the cocktail menu reveals a similar celebration of produce and spices of the 33rd parallel and almost convinces you that these drinks will likewise serve your health. Favorites include the Sin-Dori Sour, a take on a whiskey sour (available with egg white or aquafaba) infused with tandoori spices which add warm notes to a high-proof Kentucky bourbon, and the Raspberry Me Alive.

This vodka-based pink drink, while tart and creamy thanks to raspberry and coconut milk, also features anise liqueur. For some, that could take this drink to a medicinal place. In this case, it offered nuance.

Other cocktails didn’t quite hit their expected notes, but still delighted. The description of the I Beg Your Garden, a drink made with tomato gin and pepper jelly, implied a spicy vegetal note. While it was there, the sweetness of pineapple and Aperol took over. Still a tasty sip, it was more fruit basket than garden bounty.

At Sin Muerte, thoughtfulness is evident in details ranging from how the menu is crafted to the sourcing of local ingredients. Yet, this new restaurant makes it all look effortless. There's nothing fussy or overcomplicated. It comes down to good food and drinks that happen to be vegetarian (and often vegan or gluten-free). Regardless of dietary restrictions, Sin Muerte is worth a visit, or several.

Sin Muerte

817 North First Street
602-767-5600