Covent Garden will unveil a new al fresco dining scheme across the estate this spring, featuring over 500 additional new seats across more than 25 restaurants, as restaurants reopen for outdoor dining from 12th April onwards.
The new al fresco seating will span 7 streets as well as the historic Piazza, with the majority of covers providing weatherproof drinking and dining options for visitors, with heaters, large parasols and windbreak screens.
Additional streets being pedestrianised to allow for extended al fresco dining include Henrietta Street, Floral Street, Maiden Lane and Southampton Street which join the already pedestrianised Piazza, King Street and James Street.
Capco, the owner of Covent Garden, has designed and implemented this scheme to support Covent Garden’s hospitality tenants, following the success of the estate’s outdoor dining scheme during Summer 2020.
The new outdoor seating scheme will stretch around the Piazza, into King Street, Henrietta Street, Southampton Street and Russell Street and will operate for all day dining, in line with Westminster City Council’s wider al fresco scheme.
It will be used by the area’s much loved restaurants including Frenchie, Cora Pearl, The Oystermen, The Ivy Market Grill, SUSHISAMBA, Mariage Freres, Balthazar, Avobar, Da Henrietta, Din Tai Fung and more, ahead of them reopening indoor dining in May.
Existing outdoor terraces around the Piazza will double in size, including Ladurée, SUSHISAMBA, VyTA, The Ivy Market Grill and a new Lebanese concept, Na-Na.
This initiative will sit alongside a new outdoor picnic and garden dining area on the estate’s East Piazza which will open from 29th March for takeaway dining from Covent Garden’s cafes and restaurants. This area will feature over 1,000 plants creating botanical pocket gardens for visitors to enjoy socially distanced space with takeaway drinks and dishes in the heart of historic central London.
The area will also welcome a six week pop up residency from event planning platform and street food purveyors Feast It on the Piazza, providing visitors with a changing roster of the UK’s most exciting pop up street foods to complement Covent Garden’s existing drink & dining offering.
Running from Thursday 8th April until Sunday 16th May, new and up-and-coming street food concepts will pop up weekly from Thursday to Sunday, including Utter Waffle, Smoky Gaucho, The Barrow, Milktree Vegan Gelato, Bubble Bros, The Little Orange Van, Kuka Coffee, Beetle Juice Drinks and Hermanos Tacos House.

Michelle McGrath, Executive Director, Capco said: “Our new al fresco experience transforms Covent Garden into London’s leading outdoor dining destination, offering an unrivalled choice of cafes and restaurants on beautiful pedestrianised streets.
The strength in bookings observed ahead of reopening on 12 April reflects the underlying demand for experience-led dining and shopping and we look forward to welcoming visitors and workers back to London’s West End.”
The full list of restaurants with outdoor dining in Covent Garden are:
Henrietta Street:
- Avobar
- Cora Pearl
- Da Henrietta
- Din Tai Fung
- Frenchie
- Flat Iron
- Sticks n Sushi
- The Ivy Market Grill
- The Oystermen
King Street:
- Petersham Deli
- La Goccia
- Maxwell’s
- Palm Court
- Mariage Freres
- Clos Maggiore
Market Building and Piazza
- Aubaine
- Buns & Buns
- Chez Antoinette
- Dirty Martini
- Laduree
- Le Pain Quotidien
- Shake Shack
- SushiSamba
- Tuttons
- VyTa
James Street
- James Street Collective
Southampton Street
- Abuelo
- The Frog
Floral Street
- Floral Street Coffee House
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