11. Bensonhurst
Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, one of the borough’s three main Chinatowns, has seen a massive rise in Chinese immigration over the past two decades, with Bensonhurst housing nearly 32,000 Chinese residents as of 2015, the largest Chinese population of any NYC neighborhood. Bensonhurst’s Chinatown has been nicknamed Little Hong Kong and Little Guangdong due to the area’s high Cantonese-speaking population.
Mama’s Noodle House, a miniscule eatery with only one table, features a large selection of Cantonese-style noodle soups like beef stew noodle soup and curry fish ball noodle soup, as well as a selection of Szechuan hot pot dishes. Duck Wong serves a similar style of noodle soup with very thin noodles and a selection of proteins, as well as rather atypical dumplings like kale sausage dumplings and century egg with pork dumplings. The nearby E Dim Sum offers a small selection of dim sum like zongzi (glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), homestyle stewed duck, and salt fish with preserved meat. For a traditional dim sum experience with carts strolling through the restaurant, Golden Bay offers classic options as well as specialty dishes like braised goose and oxtail.
Additionally, Bensonhurst houses a handful of Shanghainese eateries like Liu’s Shanghai, which features Shanghainese classics like pork with preserved vegetables, fish head casserole, and tofu with crab meat. Mr. Bun, a much more modern eatery than Liu’s, offers specialties like three cup chicken and pork with cuttlefish as well as fried rice cake and crispy noodles.
In addition to many other Cantonese restaurants and even some Sichuan restaurants like Szechuan Garden, Bensonhurst features restaurants serving popular street foods from across China like Hand Pull Noodle and Dumpling House, popular for its scallion pancake rolls with beef and simple tripe noodle soup, and Jiangnan Pancake, specializing in jianbing (Chinese crepe with protein and oftentimes pork floss) and liang pi (cold spicy noodles).