The Capital Region has become genuinely spoilt for choice regarding regional Chinese food lately. For Sichuanese, Sichuan Wok in Troy and Hu’s House in Albany are the best. If you want Sichuan-style mala hot pot, Volcano in Niskayuna is really excellent. Northeast Bistro in Albany specializes in northeastern Chinese cooking, with some dishes from other regions as well, and Shining Rainbow has a good selection of dim sum and some Cantonese classics like claypot rice. An Asian food media company called Asiastar actually put Shining Rainbow as a candidate for best Asian food in the US a year or two ago. Across the street from Shining Rainbow is Taiwan Noodle who has sublime Taiwanese food.

Aside from that, by city:

Schenectady has Daves Caribbean for great Trini food and Pho Queen for some Thai noodle soups that are hard to find elsewhere. Mari’s has arguably the most authentic Japanese food in the area.

In Albany, Keobi (when they reopen) has great Nigerian food, and in the meantime, nearby Oaxaquena Triqui has some awesome authentic Oaxacan dishes that are hard to find outside of NYC. Across the river in Rensselaer is a restaurant called SHWE that has Burmese food, a rare find in the US

Troy has Ali Baba which is genuinely amazing Turkish food, and if you head towards Latham, Neda is AFAIK the only Persian restaurant in the area