Talk to me about dinner sets

[Kwackerly]

So, after many years of having cheap white plates, I want to buy a proper dinner set. I know the ones I want but bit confused about terminology, there are dinner plates, buffet plates, pasta bowls, tea plates, can anyone help suggest which I need most?

I think I will need ten of everything so keen to not get the wrong things!

I know I'll need dinner plates, small plates (side plates I guess), some form of pudding bowls...

Personally we use

Soup /pasta/cereal/pudding bowls - you can get some that do all purposes or buy different ones.
Dinner plates
Side plates for sandwiches
Then large serving bowls
And larger serving plates.

It really depends on how you tend to eat and what you tend to eat.

Thanks bluntness. Yes, similar use here, but started to look at various bloody plates and bowls and convince myself I need them. I think I just want to buy all the china.

I hadn't even though about serving dishes, that's another thing...

We use
round plates
Oval plates ( Larger dinners )
Bowls for soup/ pudding/ cereal
Pasta bowls
Deep bowls with rims for casserole etc
Side plates
Various larger versions of above as serving plates / dishes
Lots of small nibble dishes and a couple of white rectangular /tray plates for nibbles too

I have everything in white as the food looks much nicer against a very plain neutral background ( Probably not helpful !)

We do however have a huge selection of sabre cutlery to give colour

For our main dinner service, which we use all the time, I've got dinner plates, small and large side plates, and finally bowls. So if we are entertaining and use the bowls for say soup, I can then use a larger side plate for pudding. I bought plain white serving dishes as they to with my dinner service and were a lot cheaper. If I needed the bowls for pudding I'd just wash them up quickly but that's very rare.

Dawson’s www.ecookshop.co.uk/ecookshop/cook-shop.asp is a good place to start looking at sets.
There is an argument for buying 12 of everything as you can get multiple meals (3x4, 2x6 people etc).

I have two sets in use.
One is red (Spode and other) ironstone that I’ve mostly picked up in car boot sales etc. It’s smaller so portion control is better. 6 of everything (large, side, pasta, soup, mugs, teacups) and serving platter, salad bowl x2, gravy boat, sugar bowl and milk jug.

The other is Villeroy and Boch in two designs (same shape) All-White Manoir and Petite Fleur. More expensive but beautiful.

At breakfast I prefer simple all white for less visual clutter. From the IKEA 365 range I have three sizes of smooth bowls (French breakfast, yoghurt and nut) which are also good for leftovers in the fridge. Mugs and espresso cups. All 6x.

This is all so helpful, thank you!!!

Deep bowls with rims is a good call, thanks for that @stuntfarter

@Rosesarered321 thank you, agree with the two side plates plus bowls, and I do already have some good white serving dishes but I may add in a few fancy ones too.

@sjtmajormummy I have my heart set on Spode Ruskin house, agree 12 might be better but I need to go and look at space! that site looks great though and I shall have a good browse.

Lots of dinner sets here but the quality might not be the best...
www.very.co.uk/home-garden/tableware/dinner-sets/e/b/101848.end?numProducts=99

Oh I know the set I am after, but thank you!

Old lady with lots of plates here.
Different companies will have different “names” for their size and style of dishes.
The Spode soup bowl with a rim will be very similar to the pasta bowl.
The cereal bowl is a size and shape that gets more day to day use than the rimmed bowl.
Plates; large dinner typical for entertaining, big meal, but two other smaller sized 8 1/2 and 6 1/2 also ideal for smaller meals and cake/desert presentation.
I see a 12 piece starter set is available. Large dinner, cereal and mug. Which is a nice way to begin collecting and usually cheaper than buying individually.
A couple nice serving pieces always comes in handy for presentation bowl shaped (for the big bowl of mashed potatoes), flat for cold cuts or cookies.
I’ve passed down my wedding set to my daughter already it’s called Wimbledon by Minton, everyday I use Sunny Day by Lambethware (Royal doulton) and currently enjoying a nice pale Denby set.
Pattern is important to me as is weight, the lambethware was perfect (discontinued hard to find ship pieces) so make sure you feel them. Some can be way to heavy.

I’d say most important is to get bone chime or porcelain as they don’t chip as much. I find earthenware a nightmare as chips if you look at it the wrong way! And the glaze cracks. Also careful as some dinner plates are huge and cause problems with dishwasher or microwave.
After years of Emma Bridgewater Toast & Marmalade I now have Royal Worcester bone China and love it!
I have x8 of everything: dinner plates, side plates (there were 2 sizes and I chose the slightly larger one), soup plates (bowls w wide rim), pasta bowls, and cereal bowls. Rarely use the soup plates, most used are the side plates and pasta bowls.

Not your desired dinnerware OP, but as a general heads-up, Tesco Clubcard vouchers can be used (triple the face value) on the Denby on-line site, including the outlet section.

I've just bought £145 worth of Denby Deli (for my DiL) for £45 in vouchers and £14 cash, including delivery.

@fallfallfall thank you!!! I bow to your old lady with all the plates knowledge, that's really helpful on the various sizes and shapes and how often they get used. @mmmmmaria thanks for thoughts on which get used most, people are saying similar things- this is so helpful. I know there's a John Lewis stocking these nearby so I will go and handle them a bit first 🤔😬 and I am now going to look at all the china you have mentioned. If I could I'd have several sets but lack of storage means I need to choose carefully.

@rosegoldwatcher I have a million Tesco points, that's an excellent tip, might be able to get some items using these (serving dishes etc- but I must have the Spode plates, I just love the design and it will be perfect in my dining room).

I will post my list for more input, off to write down what I shall get

@Kwackerly - I am sure you have but have you looked at whether Spode do seconds. Much of my glassware is seconds - and I defy anyone to tell the difference but as expensive they cannot have even the teeniest bubble or whatever .

The other thing I would say is really think about what you will use. 25 years ago I had a 12 setting wedgwood dinner service as a wedding present - so dinner plates , salad plates , dessert plates , side plates , soup plates , soup bowls , pudding bowls , gravy boats cake plates , serving bowls , serving plates , soup tureen , coffee pot , teapot , tea cups and saucers , coffee cups and saucer , sugar box , & there is more . It is so lovely but do we use half of it very often ? - no. I am minded to sell it - but would not know where to do that.

@basiliskstare, it's our 25th anniversary next month and we are just getting ours! And yes... I have seen seconds of the pattern I want, and was going to ask if the quality of these is usually acceptable, so that's really good to hear, that could save me quite a bit.

Having considered, I think I need dinner plates, salad plates, and side plates. I need cereal bowls and some larger bowls for pasta or soup etc. I have some really lovely serving dishes already but will probably get a couple more to go with this set. I have many beautiful bone china mugs of all different designs so I won't need these. I need a gravy boat and some smaller bowls as these get used a lot in our house for dips, dressing, leftovers, etc. I'd like some lidded serving dishes too. What else have I missed?

I feel like I need to go through all my cupboards and look at all my things now...

Talking about lidded serving dishes, they are THE most expensive piece of a dinner set, often costing into hundreds when the plates are £20/25.

I bought my sister a lidded tureen for her wedding set from chinasearch.co.uk as an important anniversary gift. She’d been pining for the one missing piece but couldn’t justify the cost in all those years!
So maybe just one at the start….

She also looked into selling our DM’s Wedgwood set (13x!) she inherited to them but realized it wasn’t worth the bother.

@Kwackerly In my experience most of the seconds - you would not notice the difference. It is just that they won't sell other than completely perfect for full price. So my glasses I defy anyone to notice the difference

@Kwackerly Sorry that posted twice - not sure what happened - if you have somewhere you can look at seconds I would recommend it because certainly for larger less used things ( e.g. lidded serving dishes large serving plates I think very much worth it ) and indeed I suspect most things you would be hard pressed to tell the difference but in my case I could actually go and look at them.

All best to you though - that pattern looks lovely and also if you don't get all serving things etc right away looks like it would go with so many other things and just look extremely attractive. Excellent choice

@basiliskstare thank you, I really love it. Our dining room is oak/white with deep green velvet curtains and I can just imagine it in the room! I don't mind if I do not have perfect china - so excited about getting it. I have noted the points from you and @sgtmajormummy on the price of lidded dishes, and will do a lot of hunting around for these in the hope of getting a bearable price- I am hoping to never buy again so will just think of the years of service they will give me!

@Sgtmajormummy

Dawson’s www.ecookshop.co.uk/ecookshop/cook-shop.asp is a good place to start looking at sets. There is an argument for buying 12 of everything as you can get multiple meals (3x4, 2x6 people etc).

I have two sets in use.
One is red (Spode and other) ironstone that I’ve mostly picked up in car boot sales etc. It’s smaller so portion control is better. 6 of everything (large, side, pasta, soup, mugs, teacups) and serving platter, salad bowl x2, gravy boat, sugar bowl and milk jug.

The other is Villeroy and Boch in two designs (same shape) All-White Manoir and Petite Fleur. More expensive but beautiful.

At breakfast I prefer simple all white for less visual clutter. From the IKEA 365 range I have three sizes of smooth bowls (French breakfast, yoghurt and nut) which are also good for leftovers in the fridge. Mugs and espresso cups. All 6x.

Three different sets? You clearly have a bigger kitchen and a lot more storage than me

@PineappleAce
I have more space in my kitchen dedicated to various equipment than to food!

Our everyday set is M&S Maxim. Porcelain, plain white, lots of different sizes. They do their plates etc in round and square, so spoilt for choice. You can buy single items or a set.

We have 12 of everything. Or we did, before some broke! They are very durable though, and excellent value for money.

We have dinner plates, soup/pasta dishes (these are used loads in our house as they are big enough to put a fruit salad in and serve from that, and we also eat a lot of pasta), side plates (fine for sandwiches), smaller dishes (fine for cereal) in the round style, and some square plates and bowls of different sizes which I use for serving, and small tapas bowls which I use for things like olives.

I would advise you to buy more than you think you need. We use our good set all the time, my mum said don't save for best as it hardly gets used and them it becomes dated! And she was right. But the problem is that after many years villeroy and bosch have stopped doing our design and what is about is extremely expensive, so we've ended up buying a complete set of plain white for entertaining and still use our villeroy and bosch everyday.

Also check that whichever dinner plates you get fit in the cupboard that you want to keep them in, we keep ours in the wall cupboard in the kitchen which measures 27 cm inside and have got some that don't fit so they have to be kept in the dining room sideboard which is a pain as I like them near the dishwasher.

I’m coming from the opposite direction - simplifying my cupboards and making everything work hard for a place in my kitchen.

With dishes, I aim for what we use on a normal day plus two extras for breakages. But we have a family of four and a good dishwasher. Without a dishwasher, I’d only keep enough for one meal, as I’d rather wash after each meal than face a mountain at the end of the day!

We use dinner plates, deep bowls (everything from cereal to a stir fry), salad plates (for lunch, small meals, sandwiches) and side plates (as side plates, sandwich plates or for toast). I could probably manage without the salad plates but they’re useful. And smaller bowls would be more comfortable for soup/cereal but it’s easier to stack the dishwasher with just one shape of bowl.

I also have oven-to-table (fridge/freezer/dishwasher safe) small/large dishes, two very large bowls and two giant serving plates.

And a couple of cups and saucers for when my dps visit!

Mine are all white (sorry), so also work nicely with my cake stand, cake plates and tapas dishes and are used every day of the year including Christmas.

I love the idea of patterned dishes. I think when the dc are grown up, I’ll probably switch to something prettier.

After years of IKEA 365 and lovely white serving dishes from John Lewis from our wedding, I did similar a few years ago. I got dinner plates, side plates and pasta bowls. I love our new plates, BUT, they're enormous, don't fit in the cupboards (thankfully we have a plate rack that they do fit in), and we often still use the IKEA 365 for things. Make sure you measure before you've completely fallen in love!