Looking for a causal place to dine while in the area gambling? Try this place instead of getting stuck at the casinos. Within walking distance from Beau Rivage and Hard Rock. Amazing selection of oysters, appetizers and entrees. Oysters Orleans or Oysters Bienville are the way to go. Definatley coming back to this place when in town again.

We ate at the bar upstairs & had a great time.
Oysters were excellant & I had Pecan Crusted Grouper which was very tasty.
Service was very & we had a lot of fun with the bartender.

I've eaten here twice, and my wife and her extended family more times than that, and in every case the food and service have been top notch. Everything is well prepared and presented, and many dishes have a local and creative flair to them. On Friday and Saturday evenings you can expect a wait for a table if you're not there before 5:30PM or so; in a market where restaurants that aren't cutting it do indeed go out of business, this is your surest sign that the Half Shell is doing it right.

Today I took my wife here for a birthday Sunday brunch; we had the Fried Green Tomatoes and Crab Cakes appetizer, Gumbo, and for entrees we had Seafood Pasta and brunch Eggs Benedict. 5 stars says it all.

Half Shell Oyster House is a mixed bag for me. We drive between Texas and Florida five times a year and love to try new places. When our favorite restaurant in Mobile could not offer us a Friday night reservation, I called HSOH. A wonderful hostess offered us call ahead priority and had no problem with my call ahead by seven hours. There was a large crowd waiting when we arrived 15 minutes ahead of our time chosen and we were seated about 25 minutes later. We were greeted by our waiter Ryan who was wonderful. I told him that I did not want an entire fried oyster platter so he offered a lunch menu portion, which was a perfect size. I ordered the oysters Bienville from the appetizer menu and my wife ordered the Fried green tomatoes and crab cake appetizer.

My oysters Bienville was fully cooked as I wanted (I had a similar item in the Keys that was raw on the bottom and cooked on top--yuck). My wife loved her appetizer but I thought her sauce was too mustardy. I agree however that the tomatoes were not sour like at other places. The fried oysters had a heavier batter than I would have liked (a lot like Couplands of New Orleans). The fried okra was and likely the cheese grits were not freshly made. The turnip greens had no surprises which I liked. (Some places mess around by cooking them with sugar or white wine.).

The venue was crowded and loud so I would not call it a couples place. The interior is quirky at best and the chairs and tables diner-like. There are no views and parking is a bit of a challenge. In all good but not great food, some but not a lot of imagination, at prices that were about right. There are much better restaurants in the area but I cannot say there is a better restaurant in Biloxi.