Try this
NSString *value = @"http://example.site.com/%3Ca%20href%3D%22/taxonomy/term/3%22%3ETheater%3C/a%3E";
NSString *formattedValue = [value stringByReplacingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSArray *array = [formattedValue componentsSeparatedByString:@"<a"];
NSLog(@"%@",[array objectAtIndex:0]);