A global Chinese chain restaurant is about to open only its second Bay Area spot — this time in a popular South Bay mall.

Tai Er Sichuan Cuisine is set to have its grand opening at the Westfield Valley Fair mall during the week of April 20, according to a news release, which would make it the second full-service Tai Er restaurant to open in the U.S. It is already in a soft opening phase, according to the mall’s website. The Tai Er brand, which has over 500 restaurants worldwide, is most known for its suan cai yu — a sauerkraut fish soup with pork bone broth, pickled radish and sweet potato noodles. The bestseller is so popular that the company sells more than 20 million bowls annually, as SFGATE previously reported. 

Its first Bay Area location opened last September in San Mateo. “We want to test the concept of this more elevated dining experience,” Kevin Liu, the marketing director for Tai Er’s North American operations, told SFGATE at the time. “If it’s a good model, we can open more.”

When the San Mateo branch opened last fall, Liu told SFGATE that the company considers several key factors when looking for a new location: good foot traffic, as well as a well populated and diverse area. Liu said the company was looking at locations in San Francisco and the East Bay but had not found the right partners yet. Valley Fair, with its roster of popular Asian restaurants — among them Din Tai Fung, China Live, Marugame Udon and Baekjeong — and its pioneering Eataly location, appears to have been the right fit.

The brand started in 2015 as a small street restaurant peddling suan cai yu, a dish that was first created around 3,000 years ago, according to the restaurant’s website. At its San Mateo and now Santa Clara locations, its main ingredients — which include snakehead fish, dried chile and Sichuan peppercorns — will be imported from China to maintain consistency. Tai Er, whose parent company is Jiumaojiu International Holdings, even raises its own fish and grows its own small leaf mustard greens, which are fermented for 23 days before they are packed for its restaurants.

The Santa Clara outpost of Tai Er will feature some location-exclusive dishes, such as lime-glazed sweet and sour shrimp and truffle vegetarian fried rice, according to the news release.

Tai Er Sichuan Cuisine, 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd., Unit A268, Santa Clara. Open Monday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.