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Named after the owner’s dog, a Maltese whose cute mug is etched on the glass window, Café Henri has perfected the recipe for becoming a neighborhood favorite through winsome personal touches and a menu of affordable French comfort food. The appropriately diminutive café, on a West Village side street, has just twelve tables paired with rattan chairs, a peach-colored main wall, and magazines filed behind a long wooden bench. Metal light fixtures — actually old-fashioned, expandable steamers, draped upside down — cast concentric shadows on the ceiling. Crepes both savory and sweet are browned and tenderly folded into paper-thin parcels; champignon mushrooms with a peppery kick and a dollop of sour goat cheese are among the satisfying fillings. A spring of rosemary garnishes crepes as well as sandwiches, from croque monsieur to poulet ratatouille, prepared on baguettes and fluffy, toasted country bread. Even the most disagreeable expat should be sated by the soup-bowl-sized cup of frothy café au lait and the eggy just-crumbly-enough quiche lorraine. — Kate Appleton

Quiche lorraine, $7.50; crêpe champignon aux chévre, $9; poulet ratatouille, $8.50