At Home
Break your first shell in half and use it as a spoon. While not generally considered polite in American fine dining restaurants, in other countries, like France, it is commonplace to use your empty mussel shell as a tool to pry out subsequent meat from the other shells. Use one half as a spoon and insert it into your next mussel to scoop out the meat.
Use your empty shell as tweezers. Grip the back of your first discarded shell with the open side facing out. Use your fingers to gently apply pressure to the top and bottom of the shell. This way, you can open and close the shell with your fingers and use it to pick up other shells.
Remove all your muscle from the shell before eating any of them. While this is often considered unusual, it is acceptable in most places to pry out all of your mussels at the beginning of your meal and enjoy them all at once. Particularly if your mussels come in a booth or soup, this may provide ease in eating.
Eat straight from the shell. Anywhere besides a formal dinner, it is acceptable to pick up the shell and fill it with a little bit of the broth and then suck the mussel and broth directly from the shell, although you may still want to loosen it with a fork first. With mussels, there will likely be a small amount of meat juice inside the shell, which can be quite enjoyable. Sucking your mussel from the shell allows you to easily enjoy the juices.
At a Restaurant
Hold the shell in one hand (usually the dominate hand). Mussels are typically served in a skillet type frying pan, in a bowl with broth, or in seafood pasta. Lift one mussel from your dish and grip it from the base with the open side of the shell facing outward.
Pull the meat out with a fork. With your free hand, gently pry the tender flesh from the open shell. You will notice that the meat is still partially attached to the shell, so you may need to use your fork to scrape around the bottom of the meat to remove it from the shell. Poke at the meat gently and pull it from the shell slowly. Take care not to accidentally stab your hand with the fork.
Prepare the first bite. If your dish comes with broth, transfer the meat from your fork to a spoon and dip it into your broth. If your dish is served with a seafood pasta, use your fork to gather a bite of noodles. Eat your mussel in one bite. Your mussels might come without broth or pasta, in which case you will probably be given a rinse bowl for your fingers. If a rinse bowl is present, it is perfectly acceptable to eat with your fingers. If your dish is served with broth, you can also spear your mussel with your fork and enjoy it with a separate spoonful or broth.
Take care of the empty shell. Typically you will be served a separate bowl or plate for distended shells. If you are not given a separate plate or bowl, place your empty shells back onto your plate or bowl. Never plate discarded shells in a communal plate if sharing. Generally, when eating mussels in the United States, it is considered proper etiquette to discard the shell and continue to use your fork to pry out the additional mussels.
Finish your meal. If eating mussels with broth, you can spoon the broth into your mouth or use a piece of bread to soak some of it up for a delicious bite. Take care to dip one piece of bread a time (you can even spear it with your fork) to avoid double dipping. If enjoying seafood pasta, alternate between bites of mussels and bites of pasta. Consume your mussels one at a time until your meal is finished.
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