Xinhs Clam & Oyster House

We love their food! This place is one of Shelton’s best. We have dined at fine restaurants in much bigger cities and Xinhs food is right up there with the best.

I would give this five stars if we had a good server. We went to dinner there last night for my birthday as it was my choice. Don’t hesitate to go here for the food because it is absolutely fabulous, you just don’t want to sit in Denise’s section. We had the pan fried oysters and geoduck as appetizers and they were great. Another server brought out the geoduck and we downed it. Denise brought out another serving and we told her that we already had ours. She seemed real put out and I guess that we should have not been honest and eaten the second portion. Denise brought out three of the four entrees and my husband’s was about five minutes behind us. He got to watch us eat. She never came by to see how we liked our entrees not did she ask if we wanted a second beverage.
Please know that the food here is fabulous and you can always count on that. Denise needs a job where she doesn’t interact with the public.

Amazing food experience at Xihns! It was very unexpected to find such a gem in Shelton, Wa. We had a big group of 7 and they were so accommodating for us. Service was great, but food was beyond excellent! Every single dish was wonderful. We are a big seafood/​foodie family and loved it. The owner came out to check on our meals and chat for a bit! Perfect!

Came here on 3 July for my father in laws birthday because it was his favorite place and they had the best seafood. We had reservations and promptly seated, that was the only good thing I can say about my experience. There was five in our party and after one and half hours 4 of us still had no food. Ambience was weak and service could be described as benign neglect, we could been did and no one would be aware.

Honestly when I think about how much I just spent to have poor service and poor food I get upset. Never going back. Spicy dishes had zero spice. Bland. And the wait staff is slow and don’t seem to care.

Amazing food; great value. Oysters, clams and muscles were cooked to perfection. The oyster stew was so filled with oysters there was barely room for the broth. The manila clams in coconut curry was to die for.

Amazing food. Make this A stop every time you go through town if traveling through like me.

For an establishment that has direct access to fresh oysters and clams, they sure charge an arm and a leg for simple dishes. Not even that good! Never coming back!

So many things, so many places to start. We called and made reservations, and the waitress was rude. I figured she might just be busy so I didn’t think anything of it. then we went to the restaurant. When we got there there were a lot of dirty tables, and they were not ready for us. It seem like there had not been any customers there for a while. We were seated to our table. They brought out bread, and it was okay. I ordered The crabcakes and the eggrolls for appetizers. Jack-​in-​the-​Box is eggrolls are better, but the crabcakes were pretty good. For dinner my wife ordered prawn fettuccine, and I ordered black tiger prawn
dinner was terrible. The prawns were definitely just ordinary prawns, the curry was terrible, and the jasmine rice at the consistency of
wife liked her meal, and that is the reason why I am giving this review two stars instead of one. Also, just like the conversation on the phone, the waitresses here had no personality and were not friendly at all. This was a very disappointing experience, and I will never visit this restaurant again. The next time that I want seafood, I will either go to the oyster house in Olympia, or to the seafood buffet at Little Creek Casino.

Clean place, really good food. Not open enough hours/​days. May I recommend the oyster stew!!! Service is decent/​friendly. Serve bread and butter and fancy water glasses prior to meal. Bathroom is out of the restaurant and down a hall but clean. Street parking.

Never have I been so disappointed with customer service skills in my life! My husband and I love this restaurant. The food that is. The waitresses are absolutely rude. And if they don’t welcome children and or families to dine in their restaurant they should probably either post it on the door or not have high chairs. After asking if they had anything for my daughter to drink I was told the only options they had were soda, beer or wine. No juice. No milk. So after my daughter realizes she would need to go thirsty the entire meal of course the tears came. (She’s two might I add) not only was the wait staff extremely short with us but continued the night with rude glares and stares. After they finally took our order she comes back FIFTEEN minutes later to inform us they had not started our meal because there were no geoduck… We ordered oysters. We asked if we could have an order of bread to try and calm our hungry thirsty kid, And after messing up our wine order we finally receive or meal. Which was about the only good thing that came of the entire night. We ended our meal asking for to go boxes because there si ply was no point in trying to eat with a screaming two year old who wanted something to drink. As my husband is paying the entire time the waitress is glaring at him. The food is not good enough to even try going back again. Sorry xinh, when you hire new staff let us know.

FOOD. WHAT FOOD?
The highlight was probably the friendly young man that brought over a basket of bread & butter; after that the service quickly went downhill. The hostess walked over to our table & proceeded to recite the evenings specials as though she were a member of robots anonymous, maintaining minimal eye contact with a monotone voice. Once she was done she let us know that our waitress would be with us shortly. & so the wait started. we noticed a seasoned waitress make her way around tables (four) we heard her offer dessert to 2 of the tables, hmm this must mean people are done, hey perhaps she will make her way to us now. yay! NOPE! She proceeded on & never once did acknowledge our table. it is an open floor restaurant with tables along walls & off to the sides & so it is unlikely that a table could be missed.
As our hair grayed & wrinkles formed, 35 minutes came & went & it occurred to us that we didn’t want to experience anymore disappointments. We left! No sense in trying to get the attention of the wait staff. you are either into your customers or you are not. They are not! We are very patient & easy going people but the wait was too much. Somehow I developed Alzheimer’s during our extended wait because i managed to forget my cellphone on the table, we came back for it & as I walked in I was sure that I would be asked why we left & it turns out they didn’t even notice! Humph! The waitress was still at the same table as before. We will never know if in fact the food was great because we have no intentions of trying this out again. Life is too short for bad service to happen. Instead we drove around the block to Las Palmas which is a bit of a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant & within minutes we received great service & great food! Olé!

I don’t know much about Shelton, but I was surprised to find a Vietnamese seafood restaurant there, thanks to Unilocal of course.
It didn’t seem like it was packed, but it felt disorganized and chaotic. Ironically, everything was slow. It took a long time to get seated and for our orders to be taken. We might have gone through 3 bread baskets before the food arrived.
The good news is, the food was great! Started with an assortment of fresh oysters, one of my favorites, and it was really affordable. (Fun fact: The owner of Xinh’s has won numerous shucking competitions.) For dinner, I had manila clams in black bean hoisin sauce. I could taste the lemon grass and garlic in the sauce, which was super savory but a tad on the salty side. Thankfully the jasmine rice and one piece of saved bread helped to mellow it out. The portion size was surprisingly huge… felt almost bottomless, just the way I like it!
If I ever find myself in Shelton again, I will put my city girl pace aside and get ready for a feast at Xinh’s!

I’ve been eating here for many years and have never been disappointed! The best oyster stew on the planet, geoduck sashimi, egg rolls and salmon to die for!

Excellent food but unfortunately many misses with the service…
I can see myself going back at least 4 more times for items on the menu that I would love to try.
However I would avoid the weekend dinner timeframe as it is clear to me the staff is not prepared to handle a full house.
With reservations we still found ourselves waiting for a table. With no hostess to control the front, we were asked by 3 separate overworked waitresses if we have been helped. It seems to me that the wasted energy repeating the same question could have been used more efficiently by the staff.
After seating we were obviously hungry but sadly left in ‘no-​mans land’ to torturously stare at the yummy looking menu. Luckily our buser spoke Spanish as we really did want to at least order an appetizer. So we ordered in Spanish with our buser as we waited for our waitress to deal with being overcommitted elsewhere.
Other smaller miscues included a dirty glass and the two appetizers being served 15 minutes apart.
Later with our entrees, our wish for a second bottle of wine was made possible only after attempting to flag someone down for several minutes.
What is so sad about this evening experience was that the food was excellent! While it is clear the infamous chef/​owner knows how to make delicious food in the kitchen, sadly those same details and skills do not carry over to service.
Maybe a weeknight versus weekend night would mean better service. But honestly, how many weekends of miscues does it take for management to pull their head out?
Sometimes I wonder if establishments like this simply do not aspire to achieve total excellence. As I read all the accolades on the wall about the chefs great accomplishments in the kitchen I realize the accolades stop there. They don’t mention the restaurants service or ambience.
In conclusion, Xinh’s is best served for those with a penchant for excellent seafood and are not bothered by other details like service.

I booked a reservation for my wife and I on Valentin’s day. We were impressed beyond anything we could have imagined or hoped for. The food and service were extraordinary. We selected geoduk as an appetizer as we had never tried them before. We cannot begin to describe how wonderful they tasted. I have been a seafood lover all my life but this food was the best I have ever eaten. We thought the seafood we tasted in Spain would never be beaten but Zinhs was better. Mike & Roberta Quiggle

This was our second visit to Xinhs. The first time our friends brought us as they have been several times. The evening we went with our friends it was very busy so the poor service we received I overlooked as my meal was delicious. This last visit however there were only four tables for two waitresses so I cannot overlook the horrible service. We had water poured for us right away but it took too long for our waitress to come by and when she finally did we made the mistake of ordering everything, wine, appetizer, and meal. Big mistake! We should have ordered just our wine first and perhaps we would have received it so we could enjoy it with our oyster appetizer. The appetizer arrived but no wine and could not find our server. Tried to ask water person but could not get her attention unless we wanted to yell across the restaurant as the table behind us had to do to get service. Our meal arrived and then we were able to request our forgotten wine.
Will we go back? The answer is yes as my geoducks were yummy. Will I order one item at a time? Yes again.
Love your food guys but please figure out how to take care of your customers.

The best seafood in Olympia is a 20 minute drive to Shelton! My husband, an avid shellfish aficionado, convinced me to try the manila clams, and I, not a shellfish fan, was amazed at how delectable they were. That was over ten years ago, and we have been fans ever since.
Tonight we celebrated a special birthday and a special anniversary at Xinhs, with the most amazing crab cakes we have ever had (Thai crab cakes, with sweet chili sauce), pan-​fried geoduck, clams in black bean hosin sauce, mussels in curry sauce, and prawns in tamarind sauce.
The service was good, the food was fabulous, and we love how the atmosphere is fittingly unpretentious (I mean, we ARE in Shelton). Looking forward to the next special occasion to return.

This is the third time we’ve tried to eat here, and the first time we’ve found it open. I was surprised at the cool reception and the bland atmosphere for what I thought was a classy place. The waitress mechanically listed off the specials and walked away, and literally 20 minutes later we were still sitting there, waiting to have someone come back to take our order. It was not busy either… less than ¹⁄₃ of the tables were full. We finally decided to leave, as an investment of what surely would have been more than $ 70 in dinner for two for me includes some semblance of good service. No one seemed to notice we had left, as we left some sunglasses on the table and after driving two blocks and returning, our table was just as we left it with no one in sight.
I hear the food is good? We won’t be finding out any time soon…

Went here after reading the article in the Seattle TImes… It wasn’t bad but it was outstanding… I agree that for seafood portions, it was satisfying and plentiful. First we started with the egg roll… based on a local’s recommendation… it was good. the flavor was different, maybe a combo or chinese and vietnamese. it did have the vermacelli noodles in it mixed with seasoned meat… we then ordered the baked oysters with hoisin, mussels with housemade tahini sauce, and crab cakes… The shellfish had absolutely no grit or broken pieces of shells… a rarity that must be extolled… I found the baked oysters delicious and a nice mouthful… the mussels were meaty without tasting thick. the sauce was meh… The crab cakes were thick but not outstanding… the crab just didn’t pop… I ordered the special of deep fried geoduck and my brother ordered the curried mussels… The curried mussels really rocked. No shells to be picked out and there must have been over 30 mussels in this dish… It was plentiful and the sauce outstanding. The deep fried geoduck was okay but after a while… the breading just got to me… the dish began to taste thick… like lima bean thick… the flavor was fine but texturally it was lacking. Each dish had a side of rice and my plate had some dipping sauces… My final assessment was that the seafood was great in quantity and quality but that necessary thing to push the food to greatness was lacking… nothing really popped or stood out that said this dish was above all the rest I have ever tried… The curried mussel was just about the only dish that did pop…