The best plates should be stylish enough for a dinner party, durable enough for everyday use, and as far as I’m concerned, shouldn’t require you to purchase a whole dinnerware set to get them.
Sure, fully-coordinated sets are fine if you don’t want to put too much thought into your dishes, but the best dinnerware set is really the one you build yourself, mixing and matching your favorite pieces, whether they’re from a variety of makers or a single tableware line. Either way, you won’t be stuck with tea cups and soup bowls you’ll never use.
Since the dinner plate is the foundation of any table setting, I set out to find the best plates in a variety of materials, including stoneware, porcelain, bone china, and even melamine. I spent way too much time researching popular and promising dinner plates, then ordered all of my top picks based on construction, style, functionality, and price point. For weeks, I used and sometimes abused these nine plates in my own kitchen. What I found is below. (And yes, I noted which ones can be purchased as part of a matchy-matchy set.)
The best everyday plates: Crate & Barrel’s Mercer Dinner Plates
Crate & Barrel’s Mercer Dinner Plates are perfect for everyday dinnerware because they manage to feel both casual and special at the same time. They look like they might have been handmade in someone’s studio, but are actually mass produced and cost just six bucks a piece (as I write this, anyway). If you break one, they’re cheap and easy to replace. They’re big—11 inches in diameter—with a very faint lip so you don’t lose any surface area to the edge. And because the rim is so minimal, you can stack a bunch of these without taking up too much vertical space. After using them at home as everyday plates—and putting them through the dishwasher, stacking them with plates of other shapes and sizes, and letting my kids eat off of them—I haven’t chipped, scratched, or broken one yet. They come in three colors (white, gray, and blue) and for a dollar more each, you can get one with ablue or black rim. In addition to being dishwasher-safe, they’re safe to use in the microwave and in the oven up to 350ºF.
You can buy these plates as individual pieces or in a set of eight, allowing you to mix and match colors or replace just one if need be. While the Mercer dishware line includes just about every piece imaginable, it’s not available as part of a complete dinnerware set. I prefer it this way because you can build a set with just pieces you actually need, and not be stuck with bowls or mugs you don’t want.
The best stoneware plates: West Elm’s Kaloh Stoneware Dinner Plates
There’s nothing fancy about West Elm’s Kaloh stoneware dinner plates, and that’s why I love them so much. When I think “stoneware,” I think of the stuff from the ’70s and ’80s, usually in shades of brown, yellow, and orange, and often with an ornate floral design in the center. These 10-inch dinner plates, a West Elm collaboration with British industrial designerAaron Probyn, recall those vintage vibes with a natural—though more neutral—tone (the “white” is really more of a pale beige). They’re also thick and have a nice heft, as stoneware should. That said, they definitely feel more modern than your grandma’s stoneware plates thanks to a sleek but subtle rounded lip and a glossy scratch-resistant glaze. The outer edge and underside are more matte and textured, and that’s where you can get a pop of color if you want. These plates are dishwasher- and microwave-safe too. One thing to note: If you’re precious about yourdining table, you may want to use aplacematwith these because the unfinished bottom can leave incredibly faint surface scratches.
Kaloh plates are available in sets of four or eight, and West Elm also offers a couple of Kaloh stoneware dinnerware sets, including a20-piece set(which is four five-piece place settings) anda 44-piece bundlethat comes with drinking glasses and flatware too.
The best porcelain plates: Public Goods’ Dinner Plates
I really tried to find porcelain plates I liked better than the Dinner Plates from Public Goods, a membership-based online retailer, but I couldn’t. These 10.5-inch plates are a true white and have the heft and shape of our favorite stoneware plate, above, but they’re slightly larger and smoother on bottom. They’re “high-fired” (which means both the porcelain and the glaze are extremely durable), and as such are microwave-safe, oven-safe to 350ºF, and freezer-safe. If you’re looking for a bright white plate that’s modern, roomy, and durable, you might consider signing up for a trial membership at Public Goods. If plates seem like an odd thing to get a membership for, know that wouldn’t be all you get. In addition to a limited selection ofcooking tools and tableware, most of the brand’s wholesale-priced offerings are household items you replenish regularly, likecleaning products,toiletries,pet food, andpantry staples. You can even get wine!
All of Public Goods’ white dinnerware is sold in sets of four. You can build your own porcelain dinnerware set with any of the coordinating pieces, including cereal bowls, salad plates (though Public Goods calls them lunch plates), and dinner bowls (a.k.a.pasta bowls).
The best bone china plates: Jasper Conran for Wedgwood White Bone China Dinner Plates
如果你想要一个明亮的白色板但更喜欢一堂课sic shape to something more modern, the Jasper Conran for Wedgwood White Bone China Dinner Plates are timeless and elegant without feeling stuffy. Because they don’t have any embellishments, these plates can work with a variety of table setting styles and the high-quality bone china is actually quite strong. Bone china is chip-resistant, too, thanks to the presence ofactual animal bone ash. I guess you could reserve these fine china plates for special occasions, but you don’t have to because they also make great everyday dinnerware (and yes, they’re dishwasher-safe). These plates have a 10.5-inch diameter and an elevated edge that makes the usable surface area about seven inches.
These plates are sold as individual pieces, though you can pair them with coordinating pieces fromWedgwood’s Jasper Conran Whiteline. There’s alsoa 16-piece dinner set, which has a four-piece place setting for four.
The best ceramic plates: Our Place Main Plates
These porcelain ceramic dinner plates come from Our Place, maker of the Internet-famousAlways Pan. The Main Plates’ simple shape and straight-sided lip feels modern, but the warm, hand-painted hues also make them feel like something your very cool aunt might have made in the ’70s. They feel lighter than they look and they’re surprisingly durable, thanks in part to a subtly speckled scratch-resistant (though not entirely scratchproof) glazed surface. With a 9.75-inch diameter, they’re on the smaller size for a dinner plate, but because of the straight-side lip, nearly all of that space is usable. The Main Plates are dishwasher- and microwave-safe, and I love that they stay fully vertical on the bottom rack of the dishwasher. They do get really hot in the microwave, though.
The Main Plates come in sets of four. These plates are also available as part of a number of ceramic dinnerware sets,some include glassware. I regularly reach for the brand’sstackable drinking glassesandthis 12-piece dinnerware sethas four plates, four glasses, and four straight-sided bowls.
The best oven-safe plates: Year & Day’s Big Plates
I’m a big fan of Year & Day’soversized low serving bowl,所以我尝试它的极简coupe-sty很兴奋le plates, which are simply calledBig Plates. With a 10.7-inch diameter, the plates are pretty big, and because they’re rimless, all of that space is usable. While they aren’t handmade, they are “hand finished,” which gives them a modern look that’s casual, but definitely not too casual. Like the Year & Dayserving platterandbowl, the Big Plates come in four fairly neutral colors inspired by the California coastline—each with a semimatte finish. Matte plates are prone to showing scratches, and if you try hard enough you can scratch the lighter colored Big Plates, but the marks are easily removed with Bar Keepers Friend. You can also avoid the issue altogether by buying these plates in the darkest color, Midnight. If you like to put your plates in the oven, Year & Day’s ceramics can handle temperatures all the way up to 480ºF. They’re also dishwasher- and freezer-safe, so if you need your dishes to hold up to every appliance in your kitchen, these are the plates for you.
The Big Plates come in sets of four and as part of a16-piece dinnerware setwith the basics (Big Plates, Small Plates, Big Bowls, and Small Bowls), a20-piece setwith mugs, ora 40-piece setwith stainless-steel flatware.
The best matte plates: Material Full Plates
If you like to take pictures of your food, a matte plate is often the best choice because you don’t have to worry about your lens picking up a glare. Unfortunately, without a glossy glaze, matte dishware is prone to showing scratches. But the earthy Full Plates from New York–based Material are subtly textured, which makes it nearly impossible to scratch them with everyday flatware—and believe me, I tried. Because they’re hand-finished, every 11-inch plate is perfectly imperfect, whether you choose the sandy Dune color or the dark, dramatic Grotto (currently on back order). They’re also thin and shallow, which makes them stackable, but the ceramic material is still durable and these plates feel like they could last forever. They’re absolutely the kind of plate you’d turn over in a restaurant to find out who makes them.
Material’s Full Plates are sold individually or you can buy afull place setting, which comes with the Full Plate, the Half Plate (an 8-inch plate that could be a dessert plate or a salad plate) and the Open Bowl, an 8.5-inch coupe bowl.
The best cheap white plates: Amazon Basics White Dinner Plates
If you want a classic white plate but you don’t want to spend a lot, the Amazon Basics white dinner plates are timeless, durable, and affordable. Like the bone china Wedgwood plates, these are 10.5-inch plates and instead of a lip, they have a more classic elevated edge, leaving seven inches of usable space. The white is more of a grayish off-white than a true white, but unless you’re comparing it to a bright white plate, you likely won’t notice. Because they’re made of porcelain, which is very durable, they can go in the dishwasher, microwave, freezer, and the oven. And according to the product description, these plates can withstand temperatures as high as 572ºF, butmy ovenonly goes to 500ºF so I wasn’t able to test that claim.
These plates come in sets of six. For just $30. Yes, that’s a six-piece plate set for thirty bucks (at the time of publication, anyway).
The best melamine plates: West Elm Kaloh Melamine Plates
If you’re still using your parents’ hand-me-downCorelle tablewarewith your own kids just because it’s hard to break, itmight be time for an upgradeto melamine. Specifically, West Elm’s Kaloh melamine plates.Melamine是一个超级困难,不含bpa成分的塑料,虽然年代吗houldn’t be subjected to really hot temperatures (so no microwave or oven), it’s otherwise nearly indestructible. In addition to being kid-friendly, melamine plates are the best choice for outdoor dining. And the thing I love most about the West Elm’s Kaloh melamine plates is how much they look like the Kaloh stoneware discussed above. Though the melamine version weighs less and has a smoother base than the stoneware, they’re the same shape and size and come in many of the same colors. You could intermingle both types in a stack and you’d have to get pretty close to notice which is which. So if you want kid-friendly plates that don’t scream, “I come from the Target Pillowfort line!” or if you want outdoor plates that look just like your indoor plates, these are the melamine plates for you.
Like the Kaloh stoneware, you can buy the Kaloh melamine plates in sets of four. You can alsobuild your own melamine dinnerware seton West Elm’s website.
