Rainbow and brook trout farmed in the cold streams of Western North Carolina, served whole or filleted with brown butter, sorghum, country ham or foraged.

Cherokee mountain larders relied on native brook trout from the Smoky Mountains streams; the rainbow was introduced for sport fishing in the 1880s. Sunburst Trout Farms in Canton (35 miles west of Asheville) opened in 1948 as a working hatchery and now supplies most of Western North Carolina's restaurant trout. William Dissen's The Market Place on Wall Street and John Fleer's Rhubarb on Pack Square run Sunburst trout as a permanent menu item; Crusco in the River Arts District works it into seasonal Italian plates. Country ham, brown butter, sorghum drizzle and pickled ramps are the canonical pairings.

4 editor picks for Mountain trout in Asheville, ranked by editorial score. All Asheville signature dishes · Mountain trout across every city.