Southwest Brooklyn, Brooklyn: neighborhood guide

Southwest Brooklyn is a band of residential neighborhoods running from Kensington and Borough Park down through Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights to Bay Ridge, with Sunset Park on the waterfront. It is not a sightseeing district. It is where people live, shop and eat, and that is the reason to come.

Sunset Park is the most varied: a Puerto Rican and Dominican stretch along 5th Avenue and a Chinese commercial strip on 8th Avenue, with a hilltop park that gives free views back to Manhattan and the harbor. Bay Ridge, at the end of the R line, has a bar-and-restaurant strip on 3rd Avenue and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge overhead. Bensonhurst keeps an old Italian core under a newer Chinese one, and Borough Park is the center of the city's Chasidic Jewish community, with kosher bakeries and shops closed from Friday evening to Saturday night.

Kensington, just south of Prospect Park, is the most mixed and the most convenient for Manhattan commuters. Dyker Heights is quiet and residential, famous for its December holiday lights.

Stay here if you want a lower room rate and are happy to spend 40–60 minutes each way on the subway, or if food is the point of your trip. Sunset Park and Bay Ridge give you Chinese, Middle Eastern, Mexican and Italian cooking within a few blocks, at prices well below Manhattan.

Do not stay here if you have two or three days in New York and want to walk to Times Square, the High Line and the museums. The commute eats the day. Also think twice if you need a late bar scene every night: Bay Ridge has bars, but most of the district is quiet after 10pm.

For a first visit, base in Manhattan or Downtown Brooklyn and come out here for an afternoon and dinner. For a longer stay, a repeat trip or a family visit, Southwest Brooklyn is good value.

Sunset Park is the eating center. 8th Avenue between roughly 40th and 60th Streets is a Chinese strip with dumpling shops, noodle houses and bakeries; 5th Avenue in the same neighborhood runs Latin, with tacos, roast chicken and bakeries. Bay Ridge's 3rd Avenue has Middle Eastern grills, Italian-American red-sauce places and a long bar strip. Bensonhurst has Chinese restaurants along 18th Avenue and 86th Street, and Borough Park has kosher delis, bakeries and prepared-food shops.

Expect cash-friendly, no-frills rooms and portions sized for locals. Tipping follows US rules: 18–22% at sit-down restaurants, a dollar or two per drink at bars.

By subway, the D runs through Borough Park and Bensonhurst toward Coney Island; the N serves Dyker Heights; the R ends in Bay Ridge; the F and G cover Kensington and Sunset Park. From Midtown, allow about 40–55 minutes to Bay Ridge or Sunset Park (check).

By car, I-278 (Gowanus Expressway) and the Belt Parkway reach the district from the rest of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan; the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connects Bay Ridge to Staten Island. From JFK, a taxi or rideshare is usually 30–45 minutes depending on traffic (check).

Local buses fill the gaps between subway lines, and the express buses run to Manhattan. Within the district, walking is fine block to block, but the neighborhoods are far apart: use the subway between them rather than trying to walk the whole area.