Yanni’s Too Restaurant

Love this place! Wonderful family atmosphere, casual, right on the water, GREAT food, and welcoming and helpful staff! Best calamari around! I would definitely recommend.

wish this place was closer to my home town of East Greenbush… but certainly worth the drive!
I’ve heard how good the food was from others… so a recent outing to the frisbee golf course not far from the restaurant almost demanded I give Yanni’s a try… glad I did. Admittedly, when I called to see if lunch for me and comrades (5 others) would require reservations… they said sure and I made them… but the place was almost empty went we arrived on a Saturday back in mid October. No matter… the service was very friendly (almost as if we were regulars) and fun menu. My day would have been complete if they had whole belly fried clams… apparently a speciality of the house… but alas they were «out»
Dining was superb with the mighty Hudson River as the backdrop… so few good eateries along the river in the Capital district… only wish I had a boat to pull up to the docks, ’cause finding the place can be tricky as it is moshed together with a boat marina.
Funny that my groups biggest reaction was a special feature in the Men’s room… I won’t tell you what it was… nor did they upon returning from the «visit» …only «ya gotta see this» and the surprised «I’d never saw something like that before».
I’ll be back when the whole bellies are!

One word, CALAMARI. Hands down best calamari I have ever had, prepared multiple ways. They have daily specials usually consisting of about 20 things, I recommend the whole belly clams when in season. Never been disappointed here. Great for a date night with the wife, drinks and appetizers with friends, we even did my mothers retirement party there with the family. Great local brews and fun mixed drinks. After a couple Davidson brother IPA’s you would have never known the Hudson river could look so beautiful. By all means sit outside if possible, seafood always tastes better on the water. Great to see local chef Marc Yanni with local roots (Albany High School Abrookin Culinary Program alumni as am I) doing great things in the capital region.

My family came down on our boat from Albany. The dock space was fairly ample. The food though. Holy guacamole. My dad ordered the lamb ravioli, my mom ordered the grouper, and I ordered the «grown up» mac and cheese. Everything that we ordered was phenomenal. The ravioli tasted like something I would order down in NYC. My mom’s grouper dish … The fish was cooked to perfection. Each bite was melt-​in-​your-​mouth good. My mac and cheese was so good with the sherry lobster sauce; I appreciated that there was not too much cheese and true to a «grown up» mac and cheese dish that empathized other areas of flavor.
We also — of course — ordered the calamari, but we got Mediterranean, buffalo, and original for the platter instead of the four traditional flavored. I kind of loved the Mediterranean flavor. Although I’ve kind of always loved calamari this way: D
Only thing is that their draft beers were not varied. A lot of macro beers and a couple of IPAs. The beer of the month was a cider, which is not a beer. Anyway. 4.5 for me, but the grouper was soooo ahmawgawd good that I gotta do five.

Somehow using Google we were routed to an old location in Athens but thankfully found the right address and arrived just in time to enjoy a lovely dinner overlooking the Hudson. Waiter was very friendly and helpful. We ordered calamari that comes 4 different way and we chose «traditional» with lemon sauce. Yum. While the sangria was freshly made with lots of fruit, and I liked it, I didn’t love it. However I loved my capellini with shrimp, scallops, spinach, tomatoes and garlic. Abundanza! Huge portion — which I enjoyed twice after! Really fun place.

Waited a very long time to (not) order at 1pm on Sunday and never saw our wait person. Left.

The drive is relaxing to Yanni’s and the calamari is definitely worth it! It is a bit pricey, but not too far off what I would normally pay for dinner for two.
I love their shrimp tacos and the sauce they have on the side adds a bit of tang to the meal. As I’ve said already, their calamari is what they are known for and they do not disappoint. Try the calamari 4 way. Trust me.

Lots of menu choices. Food is good, but not sure if it is worth the price. Specials generally are $ 28 – 32. It is on the river, but don’t that justifies the price.

This is a restaurant right on the water with the trappings of a seaport, lot of big boats. Airy, good Italian and especially seafood and seating on the water!

I’ve tried so many times but just can’t go back. My wife, family and I have been probably 25 to 30 visits and we’re giving up. From the over chlorinated water to the inconsistent wait staff, subpar wings in every way, same old sides (red cabbage, mashed potatoes, summer veggies) and generally overpriced entrees that don’t include a salad, coffee or dessert — we’re just done. Calamari served on a cold plate. (Far from Prime 677 calamari). Wings are far from winning a wing contest. Jerk BBQ and PB&J wings — not even sure what they’re thinking! Blue cheese — not! It’s a sour cream sauce of sorts, not even sure what it is. New waitstaff not trained, dont know the menu. 12oz rib steak with shrooms $ 23.99. I have no problem with food prices anywhere… but the whole package has to be good. Simple things like fries, onion rings or sweet potato fries — limpy and cold when served. You bring it to the attention of even the experienced wait staff and they dont know what to do! Not looking for a comp, but never even an understanding at this place. This place has gone way downhill in the past few seasons. A lot of locals agree and talk about it but only the folks who truly appreciate good food and services post about it! Too many other choices. It’s more of a bar, gathering place with too many menu offerings. End of last season we were there and wings were so UNDERcooked two of us could not finish 2 wings. I asked they just take them off the table. They did. still charged us full price. Tonight we just spent $ 120 on dinner for 4 and they wouldn’t honor a free cup of chowder coupon because it required a lunch entrée!

Marc Yanni & Co. catered my wedding (offsite) this past fall and it was AMAZING. From the food to the service, I honestly could not have asked for more. What they accomplished was no easy feat — we were at a barn, without a kitchen, on a cold, wet November day. From the very beginning, Marc worked with us to create the exact menu we wanted and even helped us figure out what rentals we would need — doing his best to think of ways to help us save money where we could. When we showed up at the venue, everything was set up exactly how I wanted, his displays were on point and he and his crew were ready for the influx of almost 200 people. One of the best parts — Marc’s staff made sure to always check on my husband and I to see if we needed a drink and even brought us a plate with a sampling of all of our appetizers because they knew how busy we were mingling with our guests. We were also so impressed with how awesome the main course was. It can’t be easy to serve that large amount of people with such limited resources, but the food came out steaming hot and was absolutely delicious (filet mignon, chx francaise, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and my personal favorite — mashed butternut squash). I really can’t say enough about Marc and his staff that night — the food came out quick and more was brought when needed, when our confetti poppers created WAY more confetti than expected they helped move it off the dance floor (by hand — we couldn’t find a broom), the bartenders kept up with the crazy partiers who needed drinks all night and overall it was just perfect. I am so grateful to the Yanni’s team for helping make our wedding the best day ever. Oh yea — he even made our wedding cake!

I went to Yanni’s Too after watching both advertisements, as well as watching Jim Riley’s «Meet The Chef», featured on Mid-​Hudson Cable. If you’re not familiar with it, Jim is just a guy who goes to popular spots and reviews their food. His reviews are pretty much overwhelmingly positive, so I guess to an extent, his reviews should be taken with a grain of salt. Even still, if Jim Riley goes to the place, it tends to either be an up and coming restaurant, or a popular spot, which has to be popular for a reason. It was due to these factors, that we decided to check the place out.
We arrived later in the afternoon, though a while before the dinner rush. Service seemed fine at that point. We were taking a while to pick out what we were going to get. We decided going in, that rather than get our own meals, we would share a number of platters or samplers to get a taste for what the place had to offer.
After much debate, we decided to go with these dishes… The Calamari Four-​Way, the Sea Captain’s Combo Basket, a dozen raw clams and an order of onion rings. The Calamari Four-​Way was actually featured on Jim Riley’s show, and it’s Marc Yanni’s claim to fame as the so-​called «Calamari King». Does his product hold up to his title? Let’s find out!
I’ve been eating seafood, including Calamari, for my entire life. I’ve been far and wide. I’ve had amazing food, and the worst there is to have. Even still, there is always a margin of error between what someone considers above average and great. So I’ll try to do my best to give an honest review.
So, I’ll break down each item that we ordered, in the order that I previously mentioned. So to start, it’ll be the Calamari Four-​Way. The four styles it comes with, are… Classic, «Rhode Island», Calamari Red and Chipotle. As far as the original variety goes, it’s alright. Not great, and not bad either. Just average, maybe a little above. As far as the others go, I kind of felt they were a little gimmicky. Especially the «Rhode Island» variety. See, it’s just original with some sort of pepper on top. As far as I can tell, it’s just sliced jalapenos. It tastes good, but it’s not overwhelming. It’s literally just peppers over squid. As far as the others, the «Red» appeared to be tossed in a sweet red sauce. It was OK. And as for chipotle, it’s simply a smoky sauce drizzled over the calamari.
As far as calamari goes, there isn’t much you can really do to it. So in that respect, these approaches to typical calamari is respectable, but overall, doesn’t do a whole lot. But like I said, it is original, and it does change things up. So if you want to try something different, go for it! It’s not too expensive, either. You get a decent serving for the… $ 14.99, was it?
So now, let’s talk about the Sea Captain’s Combo Basket. It comes with fried fish (filets), fried shrimp, fried clams, and fried scallops. Oh, and served over a bed of fries. That’s a lot of fried seafood, huh? It was all pretty good. The fish was nice and crispy and oily. The fried shrimp, though I don’t love them, were good. The fried clams were of course, just strips of clam. Alright, but not my favorite item in the basket. But the star of the show here, was those fried scallops. They were huge, crispy, plump and just awesome. And I hate scallops. No, really. I HATE scallops! But these were fantastic. Again, this is all served over fries. They were great. They got a sort of fishy taste, after being underneath the seafood. And yeah, that was a good thing. But the basket costed $ 25.00, and if there was anything to load up on, it was the fries. There could have been way more. A bit pricey, but a good sampler to order.
So, the remaining two items. Raw Clams and Onion Rings. The raw clams weren’t even on the menu, so that was a bit of a special order. They came at a fair price. They were very fresh, and with a little lemon and cocktail sauce. Oh man. Now raw clams aren’t for everyone, but being a special order that isn’t on the menu, we enjoyed them. As for the onion rings. Taste-​wise, they were above average. They have a good batter going, but I have to be honest, they were a bit thin. They more like onion strings. Not your typical thick onion rings. This was fine, but you couldn’t get much of a bite out of them. Even still, they were pretty damn good.
Overall, the visit was satisfactory. I’m going to be honest here. This would be a 4-​star rating from me, had the service been better. As I stated earlier, the service was alright at the beginning. Once the dinner rush started, we literally never saw our waiter again. It got to the point where we had to ask other servers to help us, because our own was completely neglecting our table, as well as other’s. I know that this is more of an issue with our specific server, but it did take the experience down a notch. I think that for most who go here, this won’t end up being an issue. In closing. Good food. Original. Nothing great. But worth a visit if you’re near it.

Was here on a Sunday with my family. The place was busy but still the service was fast and food was delicious. If you love calamari, this is the place to go. I tried their homemade veggie burger and it was delicious! it is made with roasted eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and rice. I opted for the pretzel bun… yum!

Surely the spot in south Albany. The whole belly Clams are a must for clam lovers! The atmosphere is great and service is outstanding. Just don’t like parking. It can be a challenge.

As I took the half hour drive down to Yanni’s, I wondered what it was about this place that made it worth the drive. And it wasn’t the food, which while good, can be matched in Albany; It was the service. Everyone, from the busboy to the waitress, and especially the bartender, put a smile on our face. We enjoyed a dinner on the patio, as the weather was perfect, and were handed a very reasonable bill, considering that all three of our dinners, and appetizer, were seafood.

This is the second time I have been here. Both times my Mother took me because it has been her favorite place for many years. I was very impressed with the variety offered on the menu. My Mother didn’t see what she was in the mood for on the menu so she asked the waiter (James) if they could make her something that she described and he didn’t hesitate and yes… they can do that for you. It came and she was absolutely thrilled. I ordered a dish that was VERY unique and absolutely delicious. It was a pasta dish with mushrooms and peppers in a balsamic garlicy buttery sauce and was served over portabella mushrooms. I believe the name of the dish was Balsamic Portabella. HIGHLY recommend. If you don’t like spicy food, I would recommend asking to omit the hot peppers. ALSO… the very best thing about my meal is they offer gluten free pasta and it was just the best gluten free pasta I have ever had. Yesterday was too hot to sit out on the deck overlooking the river but if you go on a nice day, do try to get a table against the window out there. Just lovely. I love this Yanni’s Too and very much look forward to going back there again. I would give this place a 5 star rating but the atmosphere is quite casual and the dining room is very large and can be a bit noisy. The food and service are excellent so those things will certainly not deter me from returning again and again.

Lets just say Ive given this place several chances to change my opinion on the food and service every time I am disappointed the waitstaff could care less if your food is what you ordered, the potential is there to have a great restaurant but the waitstaff could careless and it shows

After a disappointing outing last year, we decided to give Yanni’s, and their new menu, another chance.
Upon walking in, the greeter was confused as to what he should ask us and told us if we wanted to go outside to eat «just go and I’ll meet you out there». We sat on the deck overlooking the boats and water and awaited the sunset while having a nice conversation. Our chat was short lived as a guitarist set up just inside and started playing unintelligible, seemingly homemade, songs at max volume. No more talking.
We ordered the seafood gumbo and nachos as appetizers and, being vegetarian (seafood only), asked the waitress if the gumbo was meatless. She assured us it was seafood only. Upon its arrival, I could smell the sausage immediately. When we asked her, she went into the kitchen and told us that it had both pork sausage and chicken in it. We had her take it away. The nachos were cold, the salsa was canned, and the our sour cream came in a prepackaged container.
For entrees, I ordered the special; Cajun Salmon Caesar Salad. The salad arrived drenched in a bitter dressing and the salmon had no flavor or seasoning. I asked our waitress how it qualified as «Cajun». She said it was the rub. There wasn’t even salt on it, much the less any rub. Salad was accompanied by a frozen dinner roll with prepackaged butter tubs.
This restaurant fails on all levels. Food, service, ambiance, and customer service.
The staff need to be trained on how to greet and serve guests, know the menu, and stay attentive.
The cook (chef?) needs to concentrate on all food. Not just calimari.
Décor is outdated. Plates, cups, and flatware don’t match. And I’m pretty sure that ducks wandering about the dining premises must violate some health code.
Overall, Yanni’s has become an extremely overpriced, and overrated diner.

What to do with you Yanni’s ?
I ventured in on a Friday night to have the whole belly clams. The band was loud but I was there already so I braved it. The clams were great, really plump. The loudness of the band didn’t get to me until I was there awhile and then it was overpowering. That just about ruined the experience. There is no use complaining to the owner; he has made up his mind that’s what he wants to do. And the crowd seemed to enjoy it. There was rousing applause after every song.
I don’t see the music as necessary; the place would do a big business anyway. I’ll just have to avoid the weekends.

We found it very difficult to find this place… our GPS did not know where Shady Harbor Drive was, and in some cases the address was given as «Marina Drive» or something, which also didn’t exist in our GPS. If you drive as close along the river as you can get in Coeymans, you will see this road, and the restaurant is down at the end of the road right on the water… as you might guess from the name.
We ate outside on their deck on a lovely late May afternoon. The weather was perfect, and the view is quite nice. Although our waitress was slow and forgetful, we still had a nice time, and the food was good enough to make up for it. We spit the stuffed portabella mushroom, with pinenuts, cheese, breadcrumbs, and herbs, which was amazing. I had the rosemary chicken salad (chicken was fine, salad was excellent with tons of fresh veggies), and the boy got the calamari caesar salad, which was also quite nice. Would definitely return if we were in the area.