Fish and chips is the top seller at Mother Ocean Seafood Market, fried to order with a beer batter recipe they keep secret, and it comes with slaw plus Old Bay fries or hush puppies. If you're after something else, go for the oyster po'boy or the butter-steamed lobster roll.

The fish case is right there too, so you can grab salmon, shrimp or scallops for dinner on your way out. The kitchen is open 11 to 6 Tuesday through Thursday and until 8 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Mother Ocean Seafood Market is a fish market and seafood counter on Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville. Owner Sam Kosik grew up in eastern North Carolina and started out selling fish from farmers market tents and roadside pop-ups before opening this shop in March 2020. Fresh fish comes in from East Coast vendors, gets cut in house, and fills the case next to shrimp, scallops, oysters, clams, Sunburst Trout and house-made crab cakes.

The kitchen fries everything to order: fish and chips (the top seller), shrimp and oyster po'boys, baskets with hush puppies or Old Bay fries, and a butter-steamed lobster roll. The fish market opens at 10 AM Tuesday through Saturday, and it's closed Sunday and Monday.

Mountain Xpress readers have voted it Best Fresh Fish Seller in their Best of WNC awards, and locals keep coming back for the fish and chips. Home cooks lean on the counter crew for what to grab and how to cook it.

Mother Ocean Seafood Market

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Fish and Chips on Merrimon

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