Where to Eat Trout in Skardu

Trout is the dish people ask for in Skardu, and the best of it comes from the trout farms around Kachura, about half an hour from town, where the fish goes straight from the tank to the grill. This guide covers where to eat it, what it costs, and the difference between farmed and wild trout.

Kachura: the centre of Skardu's trout

Kachura, on the lakes about 30 minutes from Skardu, has several working trout farms alongside its hotels, including a farm run inside the Shangrila Resort grounds at Lower Kachura Lake. The setup is usually the same: rainbow trout raised in flow-through tanks fed by cold lake or spring water, sold live or freshly killed, and cooked to order, often just grilled or fried with butter and lemon.

The best-known place to eat it is the Pagoda Restaurant at Shangrila, on the edge of the heart-shaped Lower Kachura Lake, which serves grilled trout from its own farm with the lake as the view. There are smaller, independent trout farms and simple restaurants around Kachura as well, some of which let you pick your fish from the tank before it's cooked.

In Skardu city

You don't have to go to Kachura for trout; a number of restaurants in town serve it too, generally supplied from Kachura or other nearby farms rather than caught locally that day. It's a safe order almost anywhere that lists it on the menu, though the freshest and best-value versions are still at the source in Kachura.

What it costs

Trout in Skardu is priced by weight or by fish, and it moves around depending on the restaurant, the size of the fish and the season. As a rough guide from recent visitor reports, a plate at an ordinary restaurant runs somewhere in the low hundreds of rupees, while a full meal at a lakeside spot like Shangrila's Pagoda Restaurant, with the view and the setting, costs more. Menus and prices change often enough that quoting an exact figure here would be more misleading than helpful; ask the price before you order, especially if you're picking a live fish, since it's usually priced by weight.

Farmed versus wild trout

Almost everything served as "Skardu trout" is farmed rainbow trout, not fish caught wild from the rivers. Trout is not native to this part of the Indus system; it was introduced into Gilgit-Baltistan's cold streams and lakes because the water suits it, and farms like the ones at Kachura raise it commercially rather than relying on wild catch. That's not a downside: farmed trout here is raised in clean, cold, fast-flowing water and sold within hours of being killed, which is a large part of why it tastes as good as it does. If you do go fishing yourself, whether in the wild or at a stocked pond, our guide to Satpara Lake covers trout fishing there as one of the lake's activities.

Why trout, and why here?

Trout suits Gilgit-Baltistan's cold, clear, fast-flowing water, and rainbow trout farming has become one of the region's small local industries, with Kachura as one of its centres. The farms sit right beside the lakes that draw visitors anyway, so eating trout there isn't a detour, it's what's already on the way. It's also a rare case of a genuinely local speciality that doesn't need advance planning: turn up hungry, and there's almost always a farm or restaurant nearby with fish in the tank.

A few tips before you go

• Ask if the fish is fresh from the farm that day. At Kachura it usually is; further from the farms, less certainly so.
• Expect it whole, not filleted. Trout in Skardu is typically served whole, grilled or fried, with the head and bones intact.
• Pair it with a Kachura visit. Since the best trout is at the source, build it into a half-day at Upper or Lower Kachura Lake rather than a special separate trip.
• Vegetarians and anyone avoiding fish will find it easy to order around; it's a specialty, not the only thing on the menu, and Skardu's Balti food covers the wider local cuisine.

Frequently asked questions