Brooklyn
Kensington
Little Bangladesh at Church and McDonald, with fuchka, sweets, and chai by the plaza.
Kensington is a small neighborhood south of Prospect Park, bounded by Ocean Parkway's long, leafy malls and the elevated F train over McDonald Avenue. It is one of the most mixed corners of Brooklyn — Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Orthodox Jewish, Mexican, Polish, Chinese, Central Asian — and the side streets hold detached Victorian houses that feel more like a small town than a city.
Its food heart is Little Bangladesh, the corridor around Church and McDonald Avenues, officially co-named in 2022. This is where to eat fuchka — crisp shells filled with spiced chickpeas and potatoes and flooded with tamarind water — along with beef tehari, bhuna khichuri, and Bengali fish curries. Sweet shops stack roshogolla and chomchom in glass cases, and the groceries sell jackfruit in season.
The restaurants here double as community rooms, full of men talking over chai and families out after work. Come in the evening, especially during Ramadan, when the iftar spreads go out at sunset and the whole corridor eats at once. Finish with a walk on Ocean Parkway, one of the first dedicated bicycle paths in the country.
Bengali sweet shops and chai at Church and McDonald
Fuchka and tehari from counter-service kitchens
Ocean Parkway's leafy malls and old bike path
Victorian houses on quiet side streets
Local notes
Little Bangladesh
The stretch of Church Avenue and McDonald Avenue co-named Little Bangladesh in October 2022, home to a large share of the city's Bangladeshi community. Restaurants, sweet shops, groceries, and halal carts cluster within a few blocks of the Church Avenue station.
Radhuni Sweets & Restaurant
A family-run Bangladeshi restaurant on McDonald Avenue just off Church, known for its seafood curries, sweets, and hearty breakfasts. It also belongs to the family of the neighborhood's council member, which tells you something about its place in the community.
Ocean Parkway
Designed by Olmsted and Vaux in the 1870s to carry Prospect Park toward the ocean, with tree-lined malls on both sides of the roadway. Its western path, opened in 1894, is often called the first designated bicycle path in the United States.
Through the lens
Church and McDonald are best in the evening, when shop lights and chai steam fill the sidewalk. Sweet-shop cases photograph beautifully through clean glass. Ocean Parkway's malls are a morning subject, with long shadows and cyclists in motion.
Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 13, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.