NYCGuide
The Best Restaurants In Windsor Terrace
Windsor Terrace is a small, picturesque neighborhood sandwiched between Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery: two of Brooklyn’s best places for admiring well-kept trees and all kinds of pollinators. The residential streets seem designed for leisurely strolls, and most of the area’s restaurants either have outdoor seating or to-go options that are perfect for picnicking in the park. These are the places you’ll want to return to repeatedly in Windsor Terrace—whether it’s to try everything on the menu or just for the particular pleasures of becoming a regular.
The Spots
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Going to Dog Day Afternoon is like stopping by your neighbor’s place for a bite, if your neighbor had a Ms. Pacman machine, a sick vintage record collection, and enough wit to name a hot dog joint after a classic heist movie that was shot in the neighborhood. This standing room-only spot makes excellent Chicago-style hot dogs, sandwiches, and sausage-oriented sides. Everything is best enjoyed with an orange whip, a frozen drink that tastes like hopes, dreams, and the eternal optimism of youth.
Brancaccio’s calls itself a “food shop” because it sells a little bit of everything—from red sauce pasta dishes and roast chickens to homemade pastries and some of Brooklyn’s best Italian sandwiches. When you don’t feel like cooking but want something that tastes homey, the prepared foods behind a small counter are the best option in Windsor Terrace. Have a look at the handwritten menu near the cash register, and note that this is not the kind of place where you ask for substitutions.
photo credit: Kate Previte
When you’re planning to hang out with your friends for hours, this ideal neighborhood gastropub has everything you want: a rotating draft list that’s more exciting than it needs to be, a consistently excellent playlist that spans genres and decades, lots of big tables for group hangs, and a giant chalkboard in lieu of a menu for easy ordering. Their “Everything but the Wings” (basically Japanese sweet potatoes given the hot wings treatment) is a destination-worthy dish, and this is the kind of spot where you can get a pint and a salad, knowing that both will be good every time.
photo credit: Kate Previte
Terrace Bagels makes the kind of fluffy, flavorful bagel that New York expats dream about after they’ve moved away. The flavors are pretty traditional and there’s nothing too cool or overly fussy about this spot, which is exactly what makes it special. Unlike many bagel shops, there’s actually seating both inside and on the sidewalk—but Terrace Bagels is also very close to the park...and bagels just taste better when you eat them on a green bench under a tree.
Syko is a grab-and-go spot that defies the accepted logic of most restaurants that serve food from two different cultures. There’s no fusion here—instead, half the menu is Korean, and the other half is Syrian. Both halves have standout items, like the Syrian sujok sandwich and the Korean vegetable kimbap. We like either for a quick breakfast or lunch on a nice day, since Syko is a four-minute walk to Prospect Park (we’ve timed it). They also have a shaded outdoor structure with tables if you forgot to bring your picnic blanket.
photo credit: Kate Previte
Krupa is one of those great all-purpose restaurants that anyone would be lucky to have in their neighborhood. There’s a big, sunny backyard and sidewalk tables out front—unsurprisingly, this place gets busy on nice weekends. It’s an especially kid-friendly restaurant, so no one will side-eye you if you pull a stroller up to a big table. The menu leans Mediterranean, and items like house-made chicken nuggets and a “babycino” (Brooklynese for steamed milk with cinnamon) feel very on brand for the area.
The sweet potato falafel at this tiny Israeli cafe are excellent, but it’s the eggplant sandwiches (only available on Wednesdays) that will have you rearranging your WFH schedule. There are a few tables inside, a few tables outside, and it’s pretty much always packed with locals. Batata also serves malawach sandwiches for breakfast—one sweet, one savory—and a handful of smoothies. Stop here on your way to the park for a long morning walk, or after you’ve finished an early run.
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If you’re into locally sourced everything, you’ll love Daytime, which sources their coffee from a Red Hook-based roaster, and have a well-curated grab-and-go selection with everything from wine to half-pints of salad and jam. Even simple things like yogurt and granola somehow feel special in this airy space with big windows. Daytime almost always has a line, and it only gets longer on the weekends. To snag one of the few counter stools and camp out with your laptop on a weekday, get there when they open.
If you want to feel like you’re leaving Brooklyn entirely, get an outdoor table under a canopy of colorful tapestries in Bedawi Cafe’s backyard garden. This Jordanian spot does classics very well, so you won’t go wrong with a platter of tabbouleh, falafel, foul, and merguez, but the specialty dishes, like chicken ouzi, really shine. Bedawi is perfect for a leisurely lunch or a casual dinner, and is one of our favorite summer date night spots.
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East Wind Snack Shop is your best bet for a solid dim sum-style meal without venturing over to Sunset Park’s Chinatown. The menu, like the space, is concise but well curated. Grab a counter seat and get an order of pan-fried juicy pork buns and Incredible Har Gow, which show up to the party dressed in a lacy skirt with a drizzle of abalone sauce. East Wind is a good local lunch-break spot for days when you need to step away from your screen.
If Italian bakeries were an essential part of your childhood, you’ll get an instant nostalgia-induced serotonin boost from walking into Regina. There’s nowhere to sit, but the entire interior smells like cookies, so you’ll want to linger anyway. Come here for rainbow cookies, sfogliatelle, lobster tails, and every other Italian bakery staple imaginable. They also have a great selection of seasonal baked goods, from iced cookies to highly pigmented buttercream-frosted cupcakes.
