3 Henrietta Street: Five storey behemoth promises three restaurants and the chance to eat like a Beatle

An enormous townhouse in Covent Garden has been restored and revived and is set to open in September with three restaurants and a coffee shop spread over its five floors.

3 Henrietta Street – named, cunningly, for its address – will offer food from chefs Mark Greenaway, Kimberly Lin and Luis Pous, each operating their own dining rooms, as well as a coffee shop from The Gentlemen Baristas.

Of all the offerings, Luis Pous may offer the venue’s biggest draw. The chef, who will run El Ta’Koy in the building’s basement, has a long and faintly glamourous history of cooking for A-listers, having served the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna and even Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor. He also cooked, by request, for Sir Paul McCartney and his staff. Recalling the meal, Pous told the Standard: “He loved my vegetable terrine in particular, so much so he came out to ask me to make more for him for the next day to take it to the concert!”

Pous is otherwise best known in London for his work at the now-closed celebrity hangout, Asia de Cuba, which built a following on the strength of its “Chino-Latino” fusion food. El Ta’Koy though, Pous says, will be “a personal representation of my work in the island of Kauai Hawaii, where everything came together for me as a chef.”

The menu’s influences, he adds, will come from “the islands of Hawaii and the Pacific rim, all the way down to South America and a hint of the Caribbean, where I’m from.” Dishes will include the likes of tacos, lumpias – the spring rolls commonly found in the Philippines and Indonesia – furikake shrimp with wasabi and what Pous dubs “guacapoke”, a mix of guacamole with different poke toppings. Cocktails will be tiki-inspired.

Above El Ta’Koy will be the coffee shop, which will share the ground floor with Lilly’s, an all-day cafe from pastry chef Kimberley Lin. Lin will offer brunch throughout the day, as well as a cakes and pastries, which is where her expertise lies; before Lilly’s, she worked as cronut-creator Dominique Ansel’s development chef. Lilly’s will also have a 50-seater al fresco terrace.

Above that will be a modern British restaurant from Scottish chef Mark Greenaway, called Pivot, which will offer two seasonal menus, of either four or six courses. The announcement comes as Greenaway begins to further up his profile in London, and follows his recently opened pie shop just up from Gordon’s Wine Bar by Embankment. He said of the new site: “Opening a restaurant in the heart of London is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and 3 Henrietta Street feels like the perfect home for Pivot.

“The menu will be an expression of the seasons, and we will only be using the best of what is available at any time – hence why the menu ‘pivots’ every month. I really can’t wait to welcome people into the restaurant and get going!”

His menu will include the likes of Roscoff onion with lamb haggis, turnip tuille and potato espuma; halibut with brassica and artichoke crisp; and a dish he calls “Roks and Moss”, a pudding of chocolate, kumquat and pistachio.

The announcement is a positive one for the centre of town, and speaks to confidence that Covent Garden will soon once again be busy. It also marks out Henrietta Street as something of a hotspot for new sites, following the launch of Big Mamma’s third restaurant, “party palace” Ave Mario.

For more information, visit 3henrietta.com