The Best Dinnerware Sets, Tested and Reviewed

Whether you are putting a set on your wedding registry to go with your obligatory flatware or getting one for your first home, choosing a dinnerware set has a weightier feel than picking up a toaster oven or a set of steak knives. Dinnerware is forever, right? You make a commitment to your plates and bowls, vowing only to replace them in the case of an unfortunate, shattering accident, don’t you? I am here to affirm for you that, no it’s not and no you don’t. While I’m not for silly acts of conspicuous consumption, I do believe that you don’t have to live with dinnerware you bought in your early twenties when you had horrible taste in clothes, music and romantic partners. Let the past drift away to the shelves of a thrift store somewhere and start again. We all deserve fresh starts, in this case with better looking dinnerware.

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We chose dinnerware sets to test from across a wide range of materials, designs, and price points, from formal to fun. To compare like to like, we did limit these to individual table settings—sets without serving pieces or platters included—that all had either three to five pieces per seat (some of these will come with service for four or six, but others are individual place settings). All of the tableware stood up well to normal use, however a few did not weather some of the more extreme abuse of the testing unscathed. Read on for the top picks, and the sorts of tables they belong on.

The best dinnerware set overall: East Fork Shallow Dinner set

The sets on this list have different styles, and this high-end stoneware set was one of my family’s favorites. The trendy-yet-timeless plates have a luscious glaze that reminds me of vintage Dansk Ware from the 1970’s with rich, deep color and dark iridescent flecks of iron oxide that is the kind of small detail you would typically get with hand-painted pieces from a local potter. For stoneware they were impressively durable, to the point I found myself actually throwing the small bowl from this set at my laminate floors just to see how high I could get them to bounce. Relatively unusual for a non-melamine set, this one will actually work well even if you have young kids. This is amongst the largest individual settings I tried with five total pieces, including a smaller cereal bowls a larger pasta bowl, a dinner plate, a salad plate, and a third tiny plate that can be used for dessert or appetizers.

The best budget dinnerware set: Amazon Basics Porcelain 18-Piece Set

I chose to test this one because it’s one of the most reviewed and best selling sets on Amazon and I didn’t expect to like it. But I learned to really appreciate the set’s bright white simplicity. It made well-plated meals look extremely dramatic and beautiful against the Basics platonic canvas. Also shocking was the level of durability that these thin, light plates displayed. I winced often as I dropped them, expecting them to explode into a fine shrapnel of milky Porcelain shards, but instead they smirked at me with a muted ‘bing’ sound. That said, I would not really want any of the dinnerware in this guide to hit a ceramic tile floor from counter height. It comes with service for six, but it stacks well and this would be an excellent, inexpensive table setting for a small space like a studio apartment or for anyone who needs everyday dinnerware that can also handle special occasions with its clean, classic look.

A more affordable stoneware set: Gibson Home Rockaway

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If you liked the vibes of East Fork but are on a bit of a budget, the Gibson Rockaway set might be for you. I liked the organic soft curves and rich color of the matte glaze work as well as the sturdy feel of these stoneware pieces. The dinner plates and soup bowls were generously sized without being comically large. The raw stoneware footings of the set gave it a higher end look, but may scratch up tabletops if you aren’t using a placemat. They comfortably passed the durability tests, and overall this set offers a great value so long as you appreciate their Danish art teacher aesthetics.

Best modern bone china: Mikasa Callie

The Mikasa Callie dishware set is a bit of an odd duck. It combines the thin and elegant build of a typical bone china dinnerware set with mid-century modern design elements. The bowl is more cylindrical and the plate edges are upturned in a way that will help anyone who finds themselves chasing peas off the edge of more traditional plates. Because of the thinness of this set, the plates and bowls are quite lightweight and the bright white glaze allows the Callie to blend into all but the most cluttered Bohemian Thrift Store homes. As you’d expect with a china set, this one should be handled with care. Based on the state of the box, my Mikasa order had obviously been dropped at some point during delivery and a couple pieces in the set broke because of that. But that’s what returns are for, and the Mikasa Callie is a unique looking choice for a simple set of real bone china dinnerware at a reasonable price.

An eco-friendly, stylish, and childproof set: Ekobo Recycled Bamboo

The Ekobo Bamboo set looks like four space plates from some 20th century rendering of the future and I love them so much. As a student of industrial design I truly miss the quirky futurism of the 1960’s and 1970’s so it is no surprise that when I spotted this set that looked built for interstellar fine dining I had to try it out. The Ekobo is made from a mix of Melamine resin and bamboo fibers to give it strength, which allows it to assume a fun rectilinear shape that traditional clay bodies don’t like to do. I was surprised how dense and well made this set felt and how it seemed to transform even fish sticks and tater tots into an event. As for durability, the scratch resistance, for Melamine, was truly remarkable and extreme durability is off the charts — you could use these to play frisbee in a concrete parking lot. The downside, if there is one, is that two of the items in this set are oddly sized.The salad plates are a bit big and the pasta bowls may run a bit small. Everything can still serve its intended purpose though. The Ekobo Bamboo set is the ultimate for artsy folks who need plates for small children or have a colorful party house vibe.

Affordable outdoor dinnerware: Grow Forward Wheat Straw

If the Ekobo Recycled Bamboo set, seems a bit out of your price range, I’d point you to the Grow Forward Wheat Straw 24-piece set. They’re durable, but very lightweight—they have the feeling of high-quality, reusable paper plates but they’re still microwave and dishwasher safe. This is a set that families with young kids could rely on for everyday use or one that would work well during a BBQ or camping trip. Will they last you a lifetime? No. But unless you abuse them, they could easily last until the children in your household are old enough to use some of the other sets on this list.

The unkillable classic: Fiestaware Classic Rim

With its Atomic Age color and style, Fiestaware is intensely retro in a very specific way. However, if you’re up for a little fiesta every time you eat, you will not be disappointed. Whether it is because of Fiestaware’s proprietary stoneware clay blend or some sort of strange faerie magic, these plates are nearly indestructible. I have personally had a set for 15 years, and through multiple rambunctious dinner parties and aggressive toddler indicents we have only lost two items from our set of 36. While Fiestaware is best known for its bright colors, if you’d like death proof dinnerware suited to daily use that’s a bit more understated, they do come in white.

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What to know about different dinnerware materials

Porcelain and Bone China: Generally porcelain dinnerware is made from Kaolin clay and feldspar stone that is baked at very high temperatures in an oven called a kiln. Those temperatures fuse the particles in the clay to a stone-like state called Vitrification. Bone China is a blend of porcelain and the ash of animal bones (vegans take note) that make it more chip resistant than regular porcelain. Both tend to be thinner, lighter and more elegant than other types of fired clay construction.

Stoneware: The most durable of all ceramic dinnerware, stoneware dinnerware sets are made from a coarser type of clay than porcelain but are usually kiln fired to similar temperatures. Stoneware tends to be thicker and heavier than porcelain or bone china but more forgiving of abuse.