The Best Dinnerware Sets Will Make You Feel Like an Actual Adult

In the search for essential home furnishings, the quest for the best dinnerware sets falls somewhere in between a couch and a Spiralizer. Sure, plates matter—you can’t eat cacio e pepe over the sink—but they aren’t as crucial to everyday life as your mattress. Perhaps that’s why dinnerware sets tend not to elicit the kind of deep-dive, dark-corners-of-the-internet, sub-sub-Reddit research the way beds and vacuums do. Does this plate hold my food? Yes. Is the color not offensive to my eyes? Yes. Annnnd scene. Sure, any old thing can serve as a functional vessel for holding roast chicken/avocado toast/Frosted Flakes, but the best dinnerware sets do a lot more—and we found the 15 best ones worthy of every single meal.

The Best Dinnerware Sets, According to GQ

Uh oh, you have a dinner party planned and forgot you only have paper plates. Hurry and get all your dinnerware essentials right here, right now.

• The Best Dinnerware Set, Overall: Our Place, $230
• The Best Classic Dinnerware Set: Fable Base, $264
• The Best Affordable Dinnerware Set: Stone Lain Coupe, $120
• The Best Dinnerware Set for Minimalists: Hasami Porcelain, $60
• The Best Dinnerware Set for Modernists: Mud Ceramics, $175

The Best Dinnerware Set, Overall: Our Place

Our Place is most well-known for its multi-tasking Always Pan, but its dining essentials deserve equal consideration. Maryah Ananda, a cook and content creator, says she's been a “long-time fan” of Our Place, calling the brand's entry into dinnerware “gorgeous.” The plates and bowls boast a speckled ceramic surface with a more raw clay bottom. That combo, regardless of which of the millennial-friendly colors you purchase, imbues the Our Place with a handmade feel that's usually shorthand for "very expensive."

Fortunately, the Our Place sets are reasonably priced: $50 for a set of four plates, and $45 for a set of four side bowls. Unfortunately, if you want anything else—like a wide bowl for pasta—you'll have to look elsewhere for it. The sets are co-signed by Alexandra Kalita, co-founder and CEO of Common Bond Design, who lists the Main plates in a locked Pinterest board of dinnerware she keeps for her clients and notes that the full dinnerware set is “great if you care about design, but you’re 23 and just moved into a teeny tiny apartment.”

The Best Classic Dinnerware Set: Fable

Canada-based dinnerware brand Fable offer an array of different options for the table, and its Base collection is one of its most affordable: a four-piece set of classics that you can use for most meals (and snacks). Ananda credits her love for the brand to its sustainable values and designs, which are also plenty handsome. The pieces from the Base line are smooth with rounded, natural curves, and also come in a variety of muted hues—from a blush pink to a speckled finish—in case boring old white just isn't doing it for you.

The Best Budget Dinnerware Set: Stone Lain

If you're entertaining a whole dinner party, look no further than Stone Lain on the 'Zon for excellent black matte place settings that include plates, bowls, and mugs. You can serve up to eight people for just $120, and each piece has a bit of a Hasami-esque look (more on that below), thanks to the minimalist design. The flared lip is super popular these days in dinnerware, if not because it's an elegant finish but also because it keeps food from slipping and sliding off the plate as you eat.

The Best Dinnerware Set for Minimalists: Hasami Porcelain

Most of the designers we spoke to were reticent to recommend dishware from direct-to-consumer startups, which tend towards the basic and nondescript. They generally wanted their dinnerware sets to come with a bit more history. Hasami Porcelain fits that bill. The company was founded in this century, but sees itself as the product of 400 years of Japanese pottery in the Nagasaki prefecture. All the products in its line, from dinner plates to planters, are strikingly simple—thanks to their raised lips, gentle curves, and perfect matte finish. For Emilio Halperin, designer at Emilio Halperin Studio, the dinnerware is a hallmark of someone having made it. “Your plates will stack so nicely, you’ll hesitate to use them,” he said. “Why disturb something so beautiful?”

The Best Dinnerware Set for Modernists: Mud Ceramics

All of the dinnerware from Mud Ceramics have beautiful, slightly odd silhouettes, and a shiny matte finish. “It toes the line really well between a traditional dinnerware set and a more modern one,” says Kalita. “I think it's a good registry item, if you can get a bunch of people to cobble a set together for you.”

Interior designer Jessica Helgerson has amassed a collection of Mud pieces over the years, with a preference for the company’s softer colored options. “Their pieces are incredibly fine and delicate, but also somehow very hard to break—a dream combination,” she said. “I also love the fact that the working side of the plates is glazed but the undersides are unglazed, which makes them feel as if the clay itself is pigmented rather than the glaze.”

The Best Colorful Dinnerware Set: Casafina Pacifica

In a sea of variously hued white dinneware, go bold with Casafina's Pacifica stoneware set, which comes in five colors (and yes, a variation of white—in this case, vanilla) is one of them. Kelly Allen, an editor at House Beautiful, finds the Pacifica stoneware set to be especially appealing, especially with its lightly speckled stoneware aesthetic that makes it both timeless and durable. For something spicy, she recommends the cayenne colorway, a slightly muted hue that's still bold enough add a “bold pop of red.” Alas, if you do opt for vanilla, Allen has some high praise: “the creamy hue can warm up any tablescape, no matter the season.”

9 More Dinnerware Sets You Should Consider

While the above picks represent a curated edit of the best new and enduringly classic dinnerware sets, we surfaced so many great dinnerware recommendations that we'd be remiss not to share them. Here, some of our honorable mentions in the dinnerware category, including an assorted mixture of expert picks and options that our editors have put to the test first-hand among ham-fisted roommates, saucy spaghettis and stain-inducing spices, along with cycles in the microwave and dishwasher. You'll also find a couple of less expensive dupes here and there for some of the more rarefied picks on this list—e.g., if you have Mud taste, but are living the Crate & Barrel lifestyle.

From bath and bedding goodies to gear for the kitchen, Hawkins is a home brand to know. Its dinnerware is about as basic (without being, y'know, basic) as you can get for something you'd want to eat out of every day. Its affordability is a huge selling point too, offering 16 pieces for under $200. Julia Stevens, style editor at Domino and Dwell, loves that the set includes low bowls, which she dubs “the blate,” because of its ability to pull double duty as both a bowl or plate.

“The pieces have a subtle ripple texture—I was shocked to learn that they weren’t actually hand thrown,” Stevens adds. The set doesn't include mugs, but you can add them a la carte, “because let’s be honest, those random mismatched mugs are probably losing their charm,” she says.

A little bit grandma-core and a little bit farmhouse, Allen gives props to this set's rustic edge and subtle texture. She compares the ridging to coffee filters, which will “frame any food you put on the plates, meaning it’ll instantly elevate your meal presentation game.” Plus, they're great for daily use because they're safe to throw (not literally) into the microwave and dishwasher.

If you've ever eaten at a Michelin-starred restaurant, there's a good chance you've eaten off a Jono Pandolfi plate. That's because Pandolfi and his Jersey-based studio outfits a number of restaurants like New York's Eleven Madison Park and the NoMad with his hand-crafted ceramics. The dinnerware is sturdy, durable, and stylish, while maintaining a custom feel since each piece is uniquely fired and glazed (not mass-produced).

East Fork blew up on the ceramics scene with its Instagram-famous mug but also has some other quirks going for it…like, oh, that it's co-founded by Alex Matisse, great-grandson of Henri Matisse. All of East Fork's high-quality handmade pieces are a delight to eat off of and look at, made with a chubbier ceramic style that feels pretty hefty in your hand and comes finished off with a thick rim. They're also available in a range of glazes, which used to come in extremely limited quantities, but have since become easier to procure for the person who wants their dining room to look like it came out of the pages of a magazine.

Material's direct-to-consumer kitchen and dining gear combine stylish design and affordable pricing, an ethos that's best exemplified by its place settings. Ananda originally recommended the Full Table set, but while that option is sold out, the Place Setting set is still available (albeit missing the three various bowls). The plates are made by hand using Korean clay, and while the pieces look great as a set, Ananda boasts that each makes “gorgeous individual pieces.” They're weighted and substantial enough to make you feel like you're eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

The idea of reserving dinnerware for special occasions is a little—OK, very—old fashioned. But when someone says it's time to bring out the fine china, Eva Zeisel's Classic Century set is probably what you have in mind. “This beautiful high-gloss, cream glaze dinnerware makes every dinner a celebration,” interior designer Joshua Smith says. These minimally designed pieces, Smith notes, have an organic edge detail that “throws in an artistic flare without compromising the minimal design that lets the meal take center stage.”

For those who tend to destroy their dinner sets, and are willing to lean into the mess-hall-kitsch-vibe, Beggs suggests looking into dishware made from chip-resistant and scratch-resistant melamine. “It's a type of plastic that's basically unbreakable,” she said. These durable dishes work well for casual outdoor dining, as well, so you can ditch the single-use, disposable plates and bowls on your next hang.

At home, Beggs uses the stackable plates from Canvas Home’s “Abbesses” collection, which have a glossy white surface with a colored lip. “It’s a charming combination,” says Kalita. “If you’re style is a bit more country, this set splits the difference between a more modern and organic shape.”

You may have spotted Felt + Fat's plates in any of the 100-plus restaurants that currently serves food on its dishes (like New York’s Michelin-starred Musket Room). The Philadelphia brand has been making custom dinnerware collections for chefs since 2014, and sells everything from dappled and marbled plates and bowls to cheery, Danish-style sets in blues and yellows. The set seen here includes salad plates, snack plates, dinner plates, and bowls. Each plate has a gentle raised lip, with a durable porcelain clay finish that can take a beating (or many) in the dishwasher.

In order to help you find something both handsome and functional, we first consulted Alex Beggs, a former contributor at Bon Appétit, who shared some important factors to consider before adding that set to cart.

Materials: Each type of dishware material has its pros and cons. For example, stoneware sets are great because the material is hearty, dishwasher-safe, though sometimes run a little more on the pricier side. Stoneware also doesn't feel as elegant because of its more rustic aesthetic. Alternatively, porcelain sets have a glossy, sleeker look but eating with metal utensils tend to be a noisy affair.

Pieces Included: Do you need three differently sized plates in a set? Probably not. Consider what you might need to stock in your cabinet based on what you eat most regularly. A moderately sized plate and bowl will be more versatile than smaller ones, so make sure you're going for more dinner plates than salad plates.

Resilience: Microwave safe? Brilliant. Dishwasher safe? Even better. Shop for dinnerware sets that tick off these boxes and you'll be set for easy cleanups, simple reheating, and fewer opas than a Greek wedding.

With the advice from Beggs, we dove into the wide world of dinner sets you can buy on the internet, scanning the wares of direct-to-consumer startups, small restaurant supplies, and juggernaut home decor brands. We prioritized companies with streamlined, minimalist offerings in terms of aesthetics, but also companies with a large range of dishware. Obviously that had to include big dinner plates and cereal bowls, but ideally you could turn to the same company for smaller plates, mugs, and the kind of short, wide, low-profile bowls that have become ubiquitous on Pasta Instagram. And once we had some ideas, we got some help from a team of cool folks with great taste, including Maryah Ananda (a cook and content creator), Emilio Halperin (designer at Emilio Halperin Studio), Kelly Allen (an editor at House Beautiful), Julia Stevens (style editor at Domino and Dwell magazines), interior designer Jessica Helgerson, Alexandra Kalita (co-founder and CEO of Common Bond Design), and interior designer Joshua Smith.