We didn’t eat at any creative new restaurants on our recent trip to Paris. But we weren’t disappointed. This wasn’t that kind of trip. We went for the Paris sales and decided to save our euros for our purchases. We limited meals to somewhat casual establishments, grabbed breakfast on the go at a pâtisserie, indulged once a day in a modest bistro meal, and made lunch or dinner a hot-to-go option. The humble classics of French casual cuisine never let us down and never left us hungry.

One of our standbys is the kind of croque monsieur shown at the top of the post. Is there anything more honest? It’s little more than a slice each of ham and cheese—either Emmenthal or Comté—between thin slices of bread. Sometimes that combo is merely grilled. But it’s best when topped with béchamel and broiled until the cheese melts and the béchamel gets toasty brown. It’s rib-sticking and salty enough to make you reach for that quarter-liter glass of wine. For a slight upgrade, the croque madame adds a runny sunnyside-up egg on top. Look for a place that serves either croque (which means ‶crunch″) with a small green salad and frites.

Hot soup and steak to chew on

Few dishes are so immediately warming and comforting as a proper bowl of French onion soup with grated cheese enveloping the croutons or bread slices. In the best of cases, the soup base is veal stock made with roasted bones. (In the worst of cases it’s made with ‶le cube,″ or instant bouillon.) Restaurants that really care about their onion soup enrich it with sherry or red wine. Good onion soup will have a few fat bubbles on the surface, showing that the kitchen actually slow-cooked the onions in butter and salt. We enjoyed the delicious bowl here shown on the Rive Gauche at Le Boudoir (202 boulevard Saint-Germain; +33 1 43 20 70 03).

The closest thing to a ‶big″ meal at many casual Parisian eateries might be that old standby of steak-frites. We like to think of this dish as the French analog to the American burger and fries—except that the meat is a whole lot tougher. The example shown here, from L’Esplanade Saint-Eustache (1 rue de Turbigo; +33 1 45 08 53 03), didn’t win any prizes for tenderness, but the flank steak was deeply delicious. Moreover, the fries were crisp on the outside and almost greaseless. The green salad with walnuts and a mustardy dressing made a perfect complement.

Real men (and real women) definitely do eat quiche

During our stay, we also economized on lodgings by spending several nights at the Moxy Paris Bastille (marriott.com/Moxy/Paris). It’s one of the new breed of hotels with minuscule guest rooms and large, comfortable public areas for lounging and hanging out. We may not have had a closet, but we did get Marriott Bonvoy points.

We skipped the hotel breakfast in favor of croissants and coffee at Maison Landemaine Beaumarchais (28 boulevard Beaumarchais, +33 1 48 06 22 43; maisonlandemaine.com), which we came to think of as our neighborhood pâtisserie. Actually a combination boulangerie and pâtisserie, Landemaine does savory as well as sweet. We admired their gorgeous quiches every morning as we stood in line with folks grabbing breakfast on the way to work. Typically made with lots of cheese, heavy cream, and whole eggs (maybe even with extra yolks), quiche is probably not what your doctor would suggest for a low cholesterol diet. But it is a godsend for travelers on a budget and we knew we could not leave Paris without trying a couple of slices.

The young woman at the counter advised us to return before the after-work rush for the best selection. Our favorite? The classic quiche Lorraine with chewy little ham-like lardons. Back at the Moxy, we grabbed a table by a big window and opened a bottle of wine to enjoy with our quiche—and with a couple of chocolate eclairs.