We’ve spent a good amount of time in Manhattan’s Chinatown food-crawling our way through Chinese breakfast, snacks, and desserts. But Brooklyn has always seemed like another world, across another river and seemingly so much further away. We were essentially totally inexperienced with the world of Brooklyn’s Chinatowns, but that was about to change! Our day trip to Coney Island was the perfect excuse to explore a bit more of what one of the Brooklyn Chinatowns had to offer.

You know that we have a love affair with Hong Kong style cafes in Manhattan Chinatown. The morning of our Coney Island day, we thought about stopping by one of our old favorites in Manhattan, but decided last-minute to try something new and stumbled upon the joy that is the Brooklyn Chinatown in Bensonhurst.

Here are the places we visited on our trip to Bensonhurst!

Kowloon Cafe

2365 86th St, Brooklyn, NY 11214

718-333-1388

Kowloon Cafe is the perfect mix of nostalgic old school vibes but in a modern enough setting to feel clean and welcoming even to non-Chinese speakers. My oldies (think 90’s and early 2000’s) Mandarin songs and Michael’s oldies Cantonese songs were playing above, back-lit framed photos of Hong Kong street scenes graced the walls, and the Hong Kong style milk tea was served in these adorably thick walled mugs. I found the milk tea appropriately tea-ey and robustly tannin-ey without evolving into bitterness. It did not come pre-sweetened (one of many marks of authenticity) but was a tad too milky. We also tried the iced lemon tea which unfortunately came a little too sweet, but this improved after some straight tea was added. As per my usual, I ordered the breakfast set with pickled mustard greens and rice noodles in a pork broth, and Michael ordered a tomato beef macaroni soup. These were objectively well-done but I prefer M Star in Manhattan. The spam and egg sandwich at Kowloon Cafe was delightful, but not quite as good as that from S Wan cafe in Manhattan.

Kowloon Cafe stands out in their offering of Tea Time menu from 3:00-6:00pm. This special menu treat is hard to find even in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Hong Kong tea time stems from the cultural influence of British colonial rule. Tea time in Hong Kong can be enjoyed with either the English traditional scones and pastries, Chinese small plates, or a mixture of the two. Brooklyn’s Kowloon Cafe offered a typical Chinese small plate tea time menu of things like chicken wing, curry fishball, soup, and various desserts/breads. The highlight of my tea time was the chicken ginseng soup, served in a traditional single-serving size lidded ceramic pot. My recommendation: order the soup. Just get it. It is so packed with goodies and so much ginseng flavor. The broth is made with black silky chicken, goji berries, and so much ginseng you’ll go “woah.” The ginseng lends a delicate sweetness and herbaceous quality that can be bitter if not done well, but don’t worry because it’s done very well at Kowloon Cafe.

Joe’s Bakery

8517 18th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11214

718-331-8828

Joe’s Bakery is known for their Portuguese egg tarts, which are conveniently Buy Two Get One Free. You have to walk all the way to the north end of 86th St to get here. Sadly, I’m not convinced it’s quite worth it. The egg tart was just alright. The filling was tasty enough but lacked the burnt custard aroma that is expected from Portuguese egg tarts. The crust was indeed flaky but had an odd too-buttery flavor that tasted like movie theater popcorn. I’d recommend going for an egg tart in Manhattan Chinatown instead.

Mr. Tofu

2257 86th St, Brooklyn, NY 11214

917-332-7688

This place is a small street vendor-style cart parked in front of an herbal shop. It’s nearly hidden from view by the fruit and veggie vendors on the adjacent sidewalk, and only a small printed sign taking up one third of the red awning above marks its presence underneath. Mr. Tofu is a one-man operation out of this metallic street cart. Come here for fresh tofu pudding, freshly house-made tofu, gui ling gao tortoise jelly, grass jelly, and soy milk. Mr. Tofu reminded me a bit of a similar (and also beloved) tofu and snack store in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.

I’ll be adding more favorite and must-eat stops in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst Chinatown as we eat our way through this area! What are your favorite spots in Brooklyn’s Chinese food scene?