Smoky Mountain Trout House — Restaurant in Gatlinburg

We had passed by this place a few times during our stay and were craving seafood, so we decided to try out the Smoky Mountain Trout House.

First off, I have to say that the atmosphere of this place was very awkward. Not the decorations or anything (I actually liked the vibe of the place on that front). No, it was the lack of music or really anything playing. It was pretty late in the day, so there were only a few tables full and you could hear a pin drop in that dining room. I could see people liking that, but it just came off as a little eerie to us. Thankfully, the mood lightened as the night went on as more people came in for dinner and our group started chatting.

(Edit: The restaurant responded to this review and stated that the lack of music was an anomaly caused by an outage, so keep that in mind.)

It's a shame that that was our first impressions of this place, because the food was actually very good. The complementary hushpuppies and chips were excellent, and the fried okra was also good. Trout is their main dish (as you probably guessed from the restaurant's name), so everyone in our party ordered one of the many iterations they have and liked it well enough. Maybe offer a few more options for sides, but other than that, the menu was a good size. The price was reasonable, given the location, and everyone left more than satisfied.

I'd say that the Smoky Mountain Trout House was a pretty good place for seafood if you're in the area. Maybe we just went on a day where the vibes were off. If we ever do come back to Gatlinburg, we'll definitely try this...

My wife and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary in Gatlinburg and made the mistake of dining in at Smoky Mountain Trout. Of all the years we’ve been married, we’ve never been the type of folks to go out of our way to complain. Nor do we ever give a review, but we felt the need to do so in this case. First of all, it took at least 15-20 minutes before the waitress asked for our drink order. When we finally ordered, we were told that the salad was $2 extra, even though it’s plainly listed as a side. I ordered the smoked trout and my wife ordered the Oklahoma steak. She asked for medium well steak. My trout looked way more blackened than smoked and was completely full of bones. Probably the worst fish I’d ever eaten. My wife’s steak was overly well done and was probably the worst steak she’d ever eaten. The worst part was that when I asked the waitress to adjust the price of the steak, she stomped off with an attitude. Though she knocked off $7 from the steak that my wife struggled to only eat half of, she behaved as if we owed her an apology. Instead of the other way around. We paid $49.50 for a meal that was by far the worst we’d had in years for the price. I didn’t feel guilty for not giving a tip to the waitress as she should’ve recognized early on that we weren’t happy and tried to make it right. Also, there shouldn’t have been a charge for the steak at all in my book. We should’ve been tipped off when we walked in and barely...

My first impression when we walked in is that this restaurant looks pretty cozy as it has a cabin-like interior decor. We went on a Wednesday evening, which is not as busy as a weekend for sure, so we were basically seated right away.

The waitress was very attentive to us, there wasn't one time where I felt like I was waiting for service. They're really nice, too, asking us about where we're traveling from and they had a nice conversation with us.

When we sat down, we got a basket of hand-cut potato chips and hush puppies, served with a cup of sweet and sour sauce. We asked about the menu, and it sounded like the items on the trout section of the menu were sorted by popularity.

The first item in the trout section, named the "Eisenhower", is their house special. We ordered one of this dish and also their Grilled Rainbow Trout. Both dishes were great! Personally, however, I'm particularly sensitive to fish bones, and there were a few of them on the sides next to the side fins, but overall it wasn't that many bones and it was still a great tasting fish!

Each trout dish comes with two side dishes. The Eisenhower and a few other trout dishes come with one side dish built in, so you're actually going to get three side dishes with those. The two of us actually didn't order any appetizers or dessert and we still felt full when we...