Last month, a massive new Asian venue opened to great fanfare at Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, replacing what had been another enormous Chinese restaurant that had debuted with equal excitement.

Asia Live, sister restaurant to San Francisco’s China Live, opened its doors last month, replacing the opulent iChina that operated from 2021 to 2024.

A year and a half in the making, the two-story, 15,000-square-foot Asia Live is an ambitious undertaking not merely for its sheer size, but also because it is located in an upscale shopping mall that already boasts a lot of competition in the Asian cuisine category with such popular restaurants as Marugame Udon, Ramen Nagi, Baekjong Korean BBQ, and Northern California’s only outpost of Din Tai Fung.

But if anyone is up to the challenge, it’s restaurateurs, owners, and husband and wife, George Chen and Cindy Wong-Chen. This is the 17th restaurant that Chen has opened. And it’s not even his largest. That honor goes to China Live at 30,000 square feet, which just celebrated its 9th anniversary.

Last week, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant, where Chen was on hand to show me around — and there is a lot to see.

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