San Jose’s glitzy iChina restaurant — one of the centerpieces of Valley Fair’s billion-dollar transformation over the past five years into a dining destination — has shut its doors.
“Thank you to all of our guests who have supported us throughout the years,” a note to customers on the Open Table reservation website said. “We are grateful for the opportunity to be a part of your community.”
The owners offered no other comment about the closing.
The dining palace opened in August 2021 with two floors of opulent dining spaces, a glittering lounge, chandelier-lit restrooms and four private dining rooms, including one that will immerse guests in a virtual reality experience.
A succession of chefs offered modern and fine-dining takes on classic Cantonese dishes in the dining rooms, small bites with cocktails in the JiuBa lounge on the first floor and afternoon tea.
The showstopper, the 360 Virtual Reality room, featured 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 designers — the team at HHD Hong Kong Eastern Holiday International Design — 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.
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The debut of iChina marked the halfway point for the creation of Westfield Valley Fair’s Restaurant Collection, which is built around an open-air plaza. The upscale King’s Fish House, Shake Shack, Salt & Straw, San Francisco’s AnQi Shaken & Stirred (in Bloomingdale’s) and the now-closed Bamboo Sushi opened during that period. Since then, the Italian food emporium Eataly, Mastro’s steakhouse and Korean barbecue restaurant Baekjeong have joined the array.
In early 2025, the popular Canadian restaurant Joey will open its first Bay Area restaurant, filling the Bamboo Sushi space.
Details: 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd.; www.westfield.com/united-states/valleyfair/restaurants