Best dinner sets: beautiful bowls and plates to add to your table

Plates and bowls get used every day, so it makes sense to have nice ones. Finding a set that is durable, easy to clean and looks good is the holy grail of kitchen purchases.

It’s easy to fall for a pretty dinner set, but beware the pitfalls of crockery that won’t fit in the dishwasher or is impossible to replace if one piece gets smashed. The right set of plates will serve you well for years to come, while the wrong one could annoy you on a daily basis. To help you find the perfect set, we’ve turned to Mumsnetters for their opinions on the dinner sets that are great looking, a joy to eat off and will go the distance.

Here are the best dinner sets to buy.

1. Best overall dinner set: Habitat Evora

Price: £60 | Buy now from Sainsbury's

"I like Sainsbury's table wear too. I've got way too many odd mish mash plates, cups, bowls, but then I do food photography or a food blog, so need a variety of different plates, etc" - recommended by Mumsnet user, FunkyCrunky

"I find supermarkets are very good for homewares, especially Sainsburys. LoniceraJaponica

Habitat is now owned by Sainsbury’s, so you can pick up bold, design-led homeware alongside oven chips and satsumas. This Evora dinner set is neutral and classy, while its rounded edges and chunkiness give it an interesting look. Made from durable stoneware, each piece is unique thanks to a mottled glaze. This set comes with four big dinner plates, four side plates and four bowls.

Key specs

• Material: Stoneware

• What’s included: 4 dinner plates, 4 side plates and 4 bowls

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

2. Best budget dinner set: Creatable 16 Piece Stoneware Dinner Set

Price: £55 | Buy now from Amazon

"Creatable is a good mid-price German company that makes dinner services across a very wide range of designs. Both Amazon and Wayfair stock them" - RickiTarr

Creatable make great quality crockery at an affordable price. This speckled set is great value and includes dinner plates, side plates, bowls and mugs - everything you need to get started. The mix-and-match colours make it easy to replace if one or two pieces get broken, and the robust stoneware is satisfyingly weighty.

Key specs

• Material: Stoneware

• What’s included: 4 dinner plates, 4 side plates, 4 bowls and 4 mugs

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

3. Best white dinner set: M&S Maxim

Price: £50 | Buy now from Marks & Spencer

"We've had the plain white Maxim range from M&S since we got married 20 years ago. Easy to replace broken plates/dishes as it's still going" - BonnesVacances

M&S Maxim dinnerware is sleek, practical and never goes out of style. It’s easy to replace broken pieces as the range is a mainstay in the M&S home department - many Mumsnetters are still enjoying their Maxim set decades after buying. Reviewers say the design has changed slightly in recent years, but plates and bowls still match and stack with older style Maxim. The crockery is finished with a StayNew coating, so it still sparkles even if you bung it in the dishwasher every evening.

Key specs

• Material: Porcelain

• What’s included: 4 dinner plates, 4 side plates, 4 bowls

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

4. Best porcelain dinner set: Sophie Conran for Portmeirion

Price: £129 | Buy now from Amazon

"We have the Sophie Conran for Portmeirion set and I love it" - recommended by Mumsnet user, TeaBelle

"We had Sophie Conran Portmeirion dinner service for our wedding present 6 years ago. We use it everyday. It's timeless and really nice" - tried and tested by Mumsnet user, Carpetburns

Mumsnetters love the irregular ridges of Sophie Conran’s porcelain dinner set for Portmeirion. The plates and bowls have a slight wave to their shape, giving a unique look to each piece while still stacking neatly together. It’s a beautiful design and really high quality, so it’s bound to get compliments from your dinner guests. The set is oven-to-table and dishwasher safe, plus replacements are easy to find online, should a piece get broken.

Key specs

• Material: Porcelain

• What’s included: 4 dinner plates, 4 side plates, 4 bowls

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

5. Best colourful dinner set: Le Creuset Rainbow Stoneware

Price: £169 | Buy now from Amazon

"I love my Le Creuset stoneware. I have a mix of blues, purple and yellow but they do all sorts of colours" - recommended by Mumsnet user, LemonViolet

Le Creuset’s saturated colours are instantly recognisable, and this dinner set is the perfect mix-and-match option for a bright, cheery kitchen cabinet. The price is pretty steep for a set, but the mix-and-match rainbow effect does lend itself to buying individual pieces over time if price is a barrier. Le Creuset have a huge number of items in their rainbow tableware range - from egg cups to sauce pots and butter dishes to terrines - so once you catch the rainbow bug there’ll be plenty to add to your collection.

Key specs

• Material: Stoneware

• What’s included: 6 tea plates

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

6. Best dinner set for kids: Rice Dinosaur Melamine Dinner Set

Price: £25 | Buy now from Amazon

"Mine are 5 & 3 and we use funky melamine stuff from Rice or Habitat, mainly because it looks nice, and I like to keep it on a low shelf so they can fetch it themselves etc. Normal cutlery, smaller sized for the 3yo" mazzystartled

Many Mumsnetters insist on grown-up plates and bowls from an early age, but if you’re team melamine, this cute set from Rice is a great option. Rice make great quality, colourful and robust melamine tableware with tasteful animal patterns and bold, pop art inspired lettering. This dinosaur set makes a brilliant first plate and cutlery, or a thoughtful gift.

Key specs

• Material: Melamine

• What’s included: Plate, knife and fork

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

7. Best square dinner plates: IKEA Vardera

Price: £39 | Buy now from IKEA

"We recently got square ones from IKEA. The bowls are good as pasta bowls" - recommended by Mumsnet user, dementedpixie

"I have thin white stuff from IKEA. Tis amazing, food stays piping hot, fairly light and oh so cheap" - tried and tested by Mumsnet user, RandomMess

Mix things up a bit with this softly square dinner set from IKEA. It’s a bargain at £39 for 18 pieces, including the usual dinner plates, side plates and bowls plus three serving pieces. It’s made from feldspar porcelain - an extra tough and dishwasher-friendly material. The plates and bowls aren’t too heavy and they’re nice and deep, making them more versatile than flatter styles.

Key specs

• Material: Porcelain

• What’s included: 5 dinner plates, 5 side plates, 5 bowls, 2 serving plates and 1 serving bowl

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

8. Best cool dinner set: Anthropologie Renata

Price: From £6 | Buy now from Anthropologie

"I have a few bits from Anthropologie which are beautiful but not cheap" - recommended by Mumsnet user, itswonkylampshade

"Anthropologie. My crockery cost nearly as much as my (cheap) car, but it’s beautiful and I love it" BuffaloCauliflower

Where do you buy your plates from if you’re too cool for a matching dinner set? Anthropologie, of course. The home of mix-and-match tableware naturally doesn’t sell full dinner sets, but we love its Renata range for its retro patterns and gently contrasting colour scheme. Treat yourself to the full range if you love the mismatched look but don’t have time to scour vintage markets.

Key specs

• Material: Stoneware

• What’s included: N/A

• Dishwasher safe: No

9. Best quality dinner set: Denby Halo Coupe Set

Price: £130 | Buy now from Amazon

"I was going to say invest in some Denby crockery. It’s tough stuff. My mil has some from the 70’s and none of it chipped or broken. So we decided to get a set, and add serving bowls etc to the set" - recommended by Mumsnet user, Longdistance

The undisputed champion of crockery that lasts forever, Denby is Mumsnetter’s favourite for high-quality tableware that it’s worth splurging a bit of cash on. Buying a good dinner set isn’t a regular occurrence, so spending a bit more on a set you really love, from a brand that’s known for its longevity, is a wise choice. This speckled Halo set is a neutral but unique option, and its available in four different colours.

Key specs

• Material: Stoneware

• What’s included: 4 dinner plates, 4 side plates, 4 bowls

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

10. Best ceramic dinner set: Made.com Juni

Price: £100 | Buy now from Made.com

"There’s nothing like ceramics to give happiness! You’ll look at them all the time for years to come, go for it" - recommended by Mumsnet user, Ohyesiam

Made from natural clay, this Juni set from Made.com has a real rustic look. Available in blue, green, grey and beige, it has an unusual squared off lip, an earthy exterior and a glossy ceramic interior. This set comes with four dinner plates, four side plates, four bowls and tons of class.

Key specs

• Material: Ceramic

• What’s included: 4 dinner plates, 4 side plates, 4 bowls

• Dishwasher safe: Yes

What items are included in a dinner set?

Usually you’ll find at least four dinner plates, four side plates and four bowls in a dinner set. It can be cost-effective to shop around for bigger sets - which can include serving bowls, mugs, cereal bowls and sometimes cutlery.

What is the most durable dinnerware?

Stoneware is the toughest material for tableware, although modern porcelain styles are often treated with coatings that make them scratch-resistant and dishwasher safe.

What kind of crockery is best for everyday use?

For everyday use, you want your dinner set to be robust, not too heavy and not too delicate. Go for something that’s neutral enough to endure through changing trends, but as you’ll be using it every day it’s also really important that you love your crockery.

What’s the best dinner set to buy?

Habitat’s Evora dinner set is the best overall dinner set to buy. We love its subtly irregular design, and reasonable price point. There are lots of items in the Evora collection, so you can add to your basic dinner set, matching colours or mixing the collection’s neutral tones.

How we chose our recommendations

Because we know that there’s nothing like a real recommendation from a real parent, we first headed to the Mumsnet forums to find out which dinner sets were rated by Mumsnet users. We compiled a list of the best dinner sets they loved for practicality, durability, style and value-for-money.

We then did some research across the wider web, looking at which dinner sets were recommended by trusted review sites - and what customer reviews said about them too.

Having collated all that information, we picked the dinner sets that we thought would make the best buys.

Why you should trust us

We work hard to provide unbiased, independent advice you can trust. We do sometimes earn revenue through affiliate (click-to-buy) links in our articles. This helps us fund more helpful articles like this one.