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Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi Will Stay in Memphis

Jimmy "Sushi Jimmi" Sinh was moving to Orlando, but he's decided to stay in Memphis.

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh was going to move to Orlando, but he’s staying in Memphis, where he’ll continue to do his private chef jobs.

For now, he’s taking a two-month vacation at his home in the country near Memphis. “I don’t know what I want to do yet, but, so far, I just want to continue doing my private chef-ing,” Sinh says. “So, that’s what I’ve been trying to do, trying to get people to reserve more dates and book up the rest of the year.  If I don’t, somebody else will. The main thing is I’m going to take two months to relax and spend some time with my wife, my kids.”

Sinh and his family talked it over, he says. “We don’t want to move the family when the kids are so young. And we just felt like the kids need to bond a little more as a family.”

Part of his family was moving to Texas. “I was moving in one direction, the other part of my family in another direction. We feel like the family would be split a little too far. We decided to stay back a little bit and raise the family here.”

Long range plans include starting another food truck. “The last one I did I just pretty much overwhelmed myself. Like I was just trying to do too much. This one, I’m going to still keep the sushi. And I want my customers to eat a lot cleaner. I don’t know if I’m going to have a lot of the stuff I’d normally have, like a lot of fried stuff. Everything would just be cooked a lot cleaner. And have a lot more healthier options and do more sashimi and nigiri on this truck.”

The food truck won’t be called “Sushi Jimmi,” he says. “It’s going to be called something else. I want to come out with a different brand. Still have it made by Sushi Jimmi.”

Sinh wants to chill for a couple of months. “We live in the countryside and I’m loving it.”

And, he says, “I’m more of a country boy. I love large land. I don’t like to be in the city. And when I’m home I like to be in my own personal space. I don’t want to be in a noisy environment or anything like that.”

As for his plan to move to Orlando, Sinh says, “I was going to grab just a regular job and just kind of get a feel of how things work out there. But working all these years I never really took a nice vacation for myself or took the family out on a nice vacation. It makes you hate where you are in one spot and makes you not appreciate where you are.”

Sinh, who moved to Memphis from an Orlando suburb in 1995,  closed his first restaurant, “Sushi Jimmi,” and food truck in May 2019. Sinh, who gained legions of fans, went on to work at Saltwater Crab, La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant, and, finally, at Saito 2.

 “When I shut Sushi Jimmi down, I hopped back into my work. Worked really hard like I did at Sushi Jimmi. I never gave myself a break, so I kind of burned myself out and just hated what I was doing. That’s why I decided I’m taking a break. Take two months off. Give myself some ‘me’ time and think about what I can do for this city. And that’s what I’m doing right now. I’m actually driving out of town to pick up some stuff to improve my private chef-ing. I want to bring Sushi Jimmi to you. Make sure it’s something you’ll never forget. It’s one of those experiences you’ve got to have.”

And, as for opening another restaurant of his own some day, Sinh says, “I don’t know about a restaurant just because of how bad of an experience I had when I had my restaurant. I’d hire people and people don’t want to go to work. Look at right now. Nobody wants to work. I don’t want to have to deal with those situations any more.

“I’m a one-stop shop. I come fix the food, serve you, and clean up. I like to keep it simple. I don’t like to put too much on myself anymore.”

And, he says, “That’s how I feel right now.”

Does Sinh plan on maybe moving again? “Not any time soon. Right now, we’re settled for a while. At this moment, we’ll worry about what’s going on now. Let’s give this city what  the city deserves, which is good food.”

People can book Sinh by going to “Sushi Jimmi” on Facebook and Instagram.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi Leaving Memphis

Jimmy "Sushi Jimmi" Sinh

Sushi Jimmi is moving again.

But this time it’s out of town.

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh plans to move to Orlando, Florida in May. His last day as head chef at Saito 2 restaurant in Cordova is May 15th, he says.

“It’s a better opportunity for me, the wife, and kids,” Sinh says. “We’ve been living here so long. This is our next move as the family. The whole family is moving.”

That’s his wife and six children, including a baby girl on the way, Sinh says. They currently are living in Atoka, Tennessee.

Why Orlando? “It’s a tourist city. More than four million tourists a year. Things are opening back up and I just want to expand my career to a bigger city. It’s a better opportunity for me. I don’t know what my plans are. I don’t want to speak too soon.”

But, he says, “I’m always going to be cooking.”

Sinh moved to Memphis from a suburb in Orlando in 1995. “I was only down in Florida a year and we moved here.”

Since that time, he made his mark and gained a legion of fans.

He closed his restaurant, Sushi Jimmi, which he owned for three years on Poplar, on May 23, 2019. He closed his food truck the next day.

Shortly after, he reopened the restaurant with his brother as owner and Sinh as chef. It closed for good soon after. 

Sinh then went to work at Saltwater Crab, La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant and, finally, at Saito 2.

Will he return to Memphis some day? “I told myself if I ever become really successful I’ll come back to Memphis and invest my money,” Sinh says. “I wouldn’t mind being an investor here. Do business in Memphis.”

Something in the food industry, he says. “Or just have another restaurant again here.”

Memphis, he says, is “home to me. I don’t want to leave, but it’s good for my future and my kids’ future. That’s more important than anything else. I made a pretty good impression here. I want to see how far it will take me. To me, the sky’s the limit. I don’t have a limit. Anything I do, I want more and more and more. It just doesn’t  stop.”

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sushi Jimmi Now Starring in His Own Cooking Show on YouTube

Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh



Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh is starring in his own cooking show, Jimmi Sinh, on YouTube.

Sinh made sushi on the first episode, which aired January 18th, but he plans to prepare all types of cuisine.

“What I’m showing people is what I do every day,” Sinh says. “How I do it. And then I can help people who are Sushi Jimmi fans and also help people who want to learn to become a chef. Everything I teach is done by a chef’s knowledge base.”

For the past six years, people have asked Sinh, who is a cook at Saito 2 in Arlington, to do an online cooking show, he says. “I was going to do this a long time ago but I just never had the time. I was requested from a lot of my customers to do classes.”

He usually just taught people who cook professionally. This is the first time he is teaching home cooks. But, Sinh says, “For me to be able to train someone, they have to have a passion for it, because if they don’t, it’s a waste of my time. I have such a huge passion for it, it has to be someone who has the same type of passion.

“I train chefs because I love for another person to do what I do. If I do it virtually, you have a choice to hit the ‘pause’ button or ‘play’ buttons. That’s up to you.”

Someone watching his videos may decide to “become another chef Jimmy Sinh. The skills I can teach you, you can go out and find yourself a chef position job and maybe open your own restaurant one day. That’s the kind of skills I’m teaching people.

“Everyone wants to put on a chef coat, but not everybody knows what to do with the chef coat. I want to put out an inspiration for all the younger people and make sure they do want to become a chef — why you want to become a chef (and) what it takes to become a chef.”

Sinh plans to feature new episodes about twice a week. “It’s everything that I ever cooked. It’s going to be out there. And if any one of my customers requests me to do something, I’ll do it. ‘We want you to cook some Vietnamese food.’ OK. Let’s make a Vietnamese food episode.”

Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh

And, he says, “I want people to know my where my culinary background is, but I want to do some grilling techniques to show people how I marinate my meat. What I do for my private parties.”

Sinh also will show viewers “the right place to go” for the ingredients for the dishes he’s making. “All of the stuff I’ll be teaching you can find locally at the store or you can order online.”

His recipes aren’t secret.  “People say, ‘Oh, man. You’re giving out your secret recipes.’ You cannot ever hold your recipes for the rest of your life. I want to be the person who shared great food with everyone.”

Currently, Sinh’s show is being filmed at the restaurant. But he also plans to do some filming at home and at other locations. “I’m going to be using my sister’s backyard. I’m going to set up a mobile kitchen in the backyard. I’m going to show people how to do outdoor grilling.”

He’d eventually like to do some traveling so he can show restaurant techniques from other restaurants around the country.

As for being on camera, Sinh is more than ready for his closeup. “I’m still learning. I’m what you call an amateur.” But, he says, “I’m very comfortable around a camera.”

And to make himself feel comfortable on camera, Sinh wears chef pants and a black T-shirt — his usual kitchen attire. “We work around all kinds of conditions. The more comfortable you are, the better your food tastes.”

To watch Jimmi Sinh, click here.

Jimmy ‘Sushi Jimmi’ Sinh