One of the centerpieces of Valley Fair’s billion-dollar transformation, the iChina destination restaurant, will open today in Santa Clara with:
Two floors of opulent dining spaces.
A glittering lounge.
Chandelier-lit restrooms.
Four private dining rooms, including one that will immerse guests in a virtual reality experience.
And then there’s the food.
Executive chef Eddie Lam, who held top positions with the Straits Restaurant Group at Santana Row and Crystal Jade in San Francisco, has created a “new American Chinese” menu of modern and fine-dining takes on classic dishes.
The Hong Kong-born and Oakland-raised chef reimagines Cantonese-style braised short rib as Beef Stew en Croute. A far-from-traditional Hot and Sour Soup is filled with Hokkaido scallops, crab and snow cloud mushrooms. Braised California Red Abalone is paired with pasture-raised chicken. And Broccoli Beef is made with American Kobe ribeye.
With the debut of iChina, Westfield Valley Fair’s Restaurant Collection, which is built around an open-air plaza, will be halfway completed at this shopping/dining center. The upscale King’s Fish House last fall joined the trendy Shake Shack and Salt & Straw, followed by Bamboo Sushi. Nearby, at Bloomingdale’s, is the recently opened AnQi Shaken & Stirred, from San Francisco’s noted An restaurant family. Next up will be Mastro’s steakhouse. The finale will come in 2022 when Eataly unveils its multi-level Italian food emporium.
But for now all eyes are on iChina, and it may be hard to look away.
The designers — the team at HHD Hong Kong Eastern Holiday International Design — say they took inspiration from a noted Song Dynasty painting and translated the golds, blues and greens of artist Wang Ximen’s “A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains” into this shimmering space with jade, gold and glass elements and art deco stylings.
Guests will first see the glittering JiuBa cocktail lounge when they walk in the door. That space, which has been operating in a soft opening mode, serves craft cocktails and small plates such as Pork Belly Momo with Chinese sauerkraut, Albacore Tuna Crudo and XinJiang Lamb Skewers.
Upstairs, four private dining rooms, all with 10-course tasting menus, will offer different experiences:
The Traditional Roundtable is meant to evoke a classic Chinese dining room. The Open Kitchen puts Lam and his chefs on view for guests who want to watch the culinary magic. The Presentation Gallery is equipped for business meetings and presentations.
And the showstopper, the 360 Virtual Reality room, features imagery from eight projectors and a sensor-enabled table to create Silicon Valley’s first VR dining experience — and one of the few such restaurant rooms in the world, according to the iChina group.
The scenes depend on the dinner being served; during a seafood course, for example, the display might feature an ocean-themed projection. The food and beverage minimum for booking the room is $4,500.
While iChina’s official capacity tops 300, the current configuration reflects social distancing and a much lower seating number. The main and private second level dining rooms will seat about 160 and the first-floor lounge and patio, 50 guests.
Details: iChina’s main restaurant serves daily from 5 to 10 p.m. The JiuBa bar opens two hours earlier, at 3 p.m. and seats customers until 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Westfield Valley Fair, 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara. www.ichinarestaurant.com
