Mark P.
Yelp
Our Hudson Valley dining adventure began last evening (9-30-25) with dinner at Zinnia's Dinette (1843 NY 23) in Craryville, NY. Our son and daughter-in-law made the recommendation and joined us for a tasty and fun evening. My one-sentence review "An eclectic, but tight, seafood forward menu (almost all the fried food is gluten-free and prepared in a dedicated fryer) featuring delicious food, at reasonable prices in this highly competitive dining market, with friendly and engaging staff (thank you Wendy)."
Opened just in 2021, as Wendy explained, Zinnia's Dinette features fresh seafood in a variety of creative presentations and they carry and service perhaps the most extensive array of tinned seafood I've ever seen (photos at the end of my review). You can select a tin (or tins) for your meal (or purchase some to take home). The selection is almost overwhelming, but very appetizing. With the exception of the fried fish, all the other fried seafood is made gluten-free. They serve a variety of unique beverages as well as beer, cider, and wine (much of it made in the Hudson Valley).
We arrived at about 7:15 p, took some menus, sat down at a booth, figured out what we wanted (naturally we ended up over-ordering) then my son and I got up to place and pay for the order. We brought everyone's drinks back to the table and then made our way to the end of the store to check out the amazing selection of tinned fish--clams, oysters, little necks, octopus, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon, trout, eel, barnacles, razor clams, mussels, and so forth. As I mentioned above, I've never seen such a selection. We resisted the temptation to load up a bag (my son confiding that he had just that a few months ago when they last dined there). lol
Our food started to arrive rather quickly. To start we ordered the fried smelts with a black garlic aioli sauce, the Rhode Island-style calamari with hot peppers and a light vinaigrette (along with a garlic butter dipping sauce), the mixed fried mushrooms with a cowgirl ranch dipping sauce, and blistered Shishito peppers (on special last night and advertised as "last of the season"). In "theory" the fried smelts were supposed to be my "main" dish. But the portions of everything were massive. If these four appetizers were all we had ordered, we couldn't have finished. Really tasty food--lightly fried, allowing the flavor of the food to shine, not the coating. Even though my smelts had been frozen, they were delicious and easily could have been mistaken for fresh. They were pencil thin, crisp on the outside, moist on the inside. Everyone enjoyed having some and I enjoyed sampling the other dishes. I was particularly impressed with the fried mushrooms which included Oyster, Shiitake, and Maitake, all locally sourced. The calamari was also delicious but could have used more tentacles which is just a personal preference.
Everyone's main arrived when we were just half way through the apps, save for the calamari which did get finished. I wisely ordered the kale and bitter greens salad which was crisp and fresh and arguably the healthiest thing anyone ate last night save for the Kombucha which our daughter-in-law enjoyed as her beverage. lol Our daughter-in-law ordered the red curry fish cake sandwich (served open faced on top of red beet slaw and very ripe slices of tomato; arguably the second healthiest menu choice of the evening and to her credit, she almost finished it. Our son ordered the Shrimp PoBoy--a large roll stuffed with extra large, fried Gulf Shrimp, cabbage, pickles, tomatoes, and a black pepper mayo. It was a massive sandwich and really tasty. He's enjoyed quite a few PoBoys--of various varieties--over the years in New Orleans and gave this one two thumbs up. I sampled one of the shrimp and it was delicious--crispy, freh, moist, and succulent. Wow. He consumed the first half of the sandwich without issue, but surrendered on the second half to just enjoy the filling and leaving the bread aside.
I knew that Zinnia's was going to be a hit with my wife when I saw that they had fried chicken on the menu. They have buttermilk fried (on-the-bone) chicken pieces in a basket, but she selected the boneless, buttermilk fried chicken thigh sandwich. Served on a sesame potato bun, the sandwich was dressed with cabbage, pickles, and honey mustard. The chicken was super crisp, lots of flavor and really tender on the inside--I sampled. Along with some minor assistance from the other diners, she managed to finish everything but a piece of bun. I should point out that everyone, save moi, also had French fries--real potatoes which were fried, no coating, nothing previously frozen, just potato bliss and they came "extra crispy" which satisfied my wife's palate.
We enjoyed a fantastic and fun dining experience, definitely worth repeating.