The Shire Bar & Bistro

Good service, good food, pleasant atmosphere — will stop in again. On this first visit, I personally enjoyed a draft beer and the catfish dinner plate. Perfectly cooked catfish fillet and a super tasty potato pancake! Beer was cold and served promptly.

The wait staff was very friendly and kind, not very knowledgeable about the menu. I am from out of town and looked up reviews for this place on Unilocal and it looked pretty nice. I went inside and it was much more casual than I thought. The Voodoo shrimp appetizer I got was good, but the Beef Stroganoff was off-​putting and overall I feel that the menu was overpriced for what it was. I have certainly had better food, and I am a little disappointed I chose to go here versus another restaurant in town. Hopefully this is helpful!

A little gem. Doesn’t look like much when you walk in but don’t be dismayed. This place packs a gastronomic wallop. Nice people. Good service. Great food! If you are in Chehalis you must eat here.

Great service and great food !!! Had a lemon drop (or 2) with tomatoe Basil soup and house salad. Nice and quick! Will come back when I’m in town!

Excellent. Off the beaten track. Had the salmon special and garlic shrimp-​great service wonderful atmosphere. Pleasant surprise.

Great and friendly service. Food was very good. Owner was really awesome, sat and chatted with him for a while! Highly recommend.

Amazing clam chowder and the catfish was en pointe! Never been to this town but this restaurant was a great find on Unilocal

Stopped in for lunch — ordered the French Dip & onion soup. Food was perfect & the owner stopped to ask if everything was ok. Great lunch & good service!

This is not a restaurant it is a Bar! Walked in expecting it to be a restaurant with a bar and having the name it had expected it to be decently decorated. Basically walked in and walked right back out. If your looking for a bar this the place, If you want a good place to eat then this is not it!

I was meeting a friend in Chehalis and we ended up at The Shire. I was pleasantly surprised. The food was terrific and the host/​server was great too. Service was a bit slow because only one guy was serving the bar and tables,

Being a restaurant chef/​owner myself, I can truly appreciate a chef who can produce a menu like this out of a hobbit sized kitchen like they have at the shire, he I a true magician.
We were there on New Year’s Eve the food, service, and atmosphere were absolutely impeccable.
Joel the owner was our waiter so that may have added to the experience, because he new every aspect of the food preparation and operation and we ask a lot of questions.
We shared the smoked pheasant and cheese plate appetizer then crab stuffed halibut, fantastic. Good wine and beer list.
I would definitely recommend the shire to anyone looking for a great meal in a relaxed atmosphere.

I had the coconut-​crusted cod. It was OK. I would not order again.
I was the only patron in the restaurant. That concerned me.
I think that some of the reviews were exaggerated. The service was very good.
F

This restaurant and bar is just wonderful. They have a nice liquor menu and our meal was absolutely delicious! The owner came by for a chat which was really great. We can not wait to tell our family and friends and return as soon as possible for another terrific meal ~

Best bar in Lewis County by far

Fantastic food and relaxing atmosphere

This place is awful. These good reviews must be from local farming people who have never visited a major metropolitan area. The website makes it seem like a «get dressed up for your anniversary» type of place if not a really «fancy restaurant». The kitchen is open air right next to the bar and makes your kitchenette in an extended motel look like the Masterchef kitchen. We had the sausage and chicken gumbo. It was cooked in a microwave, we watched «the cook» take it out of it from our table. There is no separate restaurant area from the bar and it reminds you of a bar that sells wings for food not $ 42.50 plates of lobster. We went originally to get lobster, but after seeing the place we elected to order the cheapest thing on the menu and get the heck out of there. We went to Safeway and got our own lobster tails and made them ourselves despite the terrible heat yesterday, that’s how appalling this place was.
As for the food itself, after seeing it come out of the microwave we wondered to ourselves if it was from a can. For $ 12 dollars we got the equivalent of ¹⁄₅ of a hotdog of gummi bear textured «sausage» and not even as much chicken as you could fit in a bottle cap. Full of obviously canned vegetables and jalapeños that had their seeds left in. The Chicken Sausage Gumbo we got was labeled on the menu as «medium heat», but since «the cook» left the seeds in the jalapeños, it was EXTREMELY hot and had no flavor outside of the jalapeño. The sodas were utterly devoid of carbonation, and had a strange taste to them.
All in all, if you’re from a place with real restaurants and you find yourself in Lewis County, do yourself and your taste buds a favor and suck it up and make the drive to Olympia. If you don’t, you’ll regret it. We sure did.

Atmosphere = Old and dusty, pretty uninspired decoration. Waiter = Friendly and helpful. Food was okay. I ordered garlic shrimp which was drowning in garlic butter with limp green beans that had sponged up some of the goo too. House-​made hot sauce on the side was runny but good. Husband had the tenderloin with Shire cake, which he said was good. I ordered the red, Washington Bordeaux style blend, and that was delicious in a large pour for $ 9. Only two choices for kids, grilled cheese or penne with tomato sauce.

My food snob coworkers thought Chehalis wouldn’t have an adequate meal… damn food elitists. The burgers were good… messy…greasy and clogged a non essential artery I’m sure.
I had the Chicken curry salad sandwich — it was flavorful and quite good. I would go back if I was in the area again.

On my birthday, on the way home from hiking the Ape Caves, my husband and I stopped at The Shire for dinner in Chehalis with our brother, sister in law, and their two kids (7 and 9). It turned out to be a really great hidden gem! We never would’ve noticed or tried it without Unilocal.
They had wonderful food, from the delicious, fresh starter salads to the wonderfully prepared entrees, to the amazing fresh-​brewed «perfect» iced tea, to the really great local microbrews! My b-​i-​l and I ordered wild sockeye salmon, and were delighted with the large portion, and the fact that it was perfectly cooked and seasoned. Husband got the coconut crusted halibut — again, a generous portion that was super tasty! Nephews each got a BBQ Chicken quesadilla — appetizer portions that turned out to be more than enough for their dinner.
This is NOT your typical bar food. We talked about it for 15 minutes after we left — and I decided that after making it up the 8-​foot wall in the pitch-​black lava tube earier that day, the dinner was the best part of my birthday!

This is a great bar and restaurant. Owner Joel Wall took over the location in 2003, and created a local spot that makes you feel at home. The food is unpretentious, high quality, and more than satisfying — clearly the cooks are attentive to detail. The bartenders know how to make their drinks. Open mic is Tuesdays, if you’re adventurous. I went to high school in Chehalis and wish the Shire was around in the late 90’s/ early 2000’s — at least it’s around now!
The only problem with The Shire is that the owner Joel is more of a Packers fan than a Seahawks fan. Give him heck, and he’ll be good to you. At least he is compassionate and merciful toward our sea chickens.
Anyway, even though the Oly Club in Centralia is an institution in the twin cities, The Shire is by far my personal preference — way more chill, low-​key, my-​kind-​of-​place.
Oh yeah, and did I mention how bomb the Shire hot sauce is! I wish I had some, but I’m having to rely on my gallon of green Tabasco.