“And fresh air!” said Tim Cheng, 59, the chef at the restaurant, 1818 Seafood.

Of course, with less foot traffic, including tourists, business is not as brisk, Mr. Cheng admitted.

Mr. Tsang said: “When we moved here in 1988, on my block there were only two or three Chinese families. The majority were Jewish and Italian.”

Now, he said, there are second generation Chinese-Americans who are well educated and value the quiet of the neighborhood. “Here, you don’t see KTV nightclubs,” he said, referring to the karaoke bars that are popular among the younger set in Bensonhurst.

Paul Mak, the founder of the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association, a social service agency, said newer Chinese enclaves were less likely to become crowded with restaurants and shops because families living in those neighborhoods tended to save more of their money “so that the next generation will be able to benefit.”

“They are in a situation where they only go out for dim sum once a week,” he said.

And in a familiar New York refrain, migration patterns have been driven by real estate. In the 1970s and 1980s, when Cantonese-speaking immigrants were arriving in Chinatown in Manhattan, housing was in such demand that although rents were as low as $200 a month, immigrants would pay a finder’s fee of as much as $5,000 to secure an apartment, Mr. Mak said.

As Chinatown became saturated, more established immigrants followed the route of the N train to Sunset Park, where apartments emptied when jobs on the Brooklyn waterfront disappeared. Small businesses opened along Eighth Avenue — in Chinese culture, eight is a lucky number indicating prosperity — and families moved to the surrounding streets.

By the end of the 1990s, Mr. Mak said, the neighborhood was so desirable that single-family houses were selling for $350,000. Many of the sellers took their windfall and moved farther southeast along the N and the D subway lines.