This week on the Strategist, we’re covering all things tabletop: the best plates, yes, and also everything that goes around (and underneath) them. Welcome to Tabletop Week.
Like plates, bowls need to fit the life you lead. Do you like to eat pasta out of a wide-rimmed vessel on the couch? Is cereal your go-to midafternoon snack? Do you like the idea of an all-white set to match various table settings or prefer bowls that are the centerpiece themselves? To create a truly thorough list of great options, I surveyed over 50 chefs and recipe developers, home cooks and avid hosts, designers and prop stylists, and Strategist staffers. From there, I narrowed down the selections you’ll find here to be accessible (meaning no vintage china you have to buy secondhand or enormously expensive pieces) and then sorted them into two main sections. The first is smaller-portion bowls, which, depending on the brand or retailer, can be referred to as soup, cereal, or rice bowls (or sometimes have no qualifier at all). These are slimmer and high-sided. The second grouping is pasta bowls and, as they’ve come to be known, “blates”: a shallow, wide cross between a bowl and a plate. (These can hold some liquid, but most aren’t meant for soup.)
It generally makes sense to have both types in your house, but the rest comes down to personal preference. Below, you’ll find hand-thrown pieces that are nice enough to pass down (but will cost you a pretty penny). There are many more basic porcelain all-white bowls that are simple and timeless. Some are designed to stand up to wear and tear, while others may be worth it only if you don’t live with roommates or young kids. Read on for all the expert picks, and if you’re in the market for plates, you can find my guide to those here too.
Soup Bowls, Cereal Bowls, Rice Bowls, and Generally Smaller-Portion Bowls
Emily Fiffer, co-owner of Botanica in Los Angeles, has a set of Onora’s big plates, small plates, and these bowls that she lugged back from the shop in Mexico City. They’re wheel-thrown, hand-etched, and, considering that, Fiffer says, not too expensive. She likes the weight and the design, noting that they can read more casual or elevated depending on how you set the rest of the table.
While recipe developer and writer Rebecca Firkser has a collection of vintage bowls, these “simple but very pretty” enamelware ones are an exception. She likes that they’re versatile: small enough for oatmeal and big enough for pasta. “And like my enamel dinnerware, they don’t break when dropped and are dishwasher safe,” she says.
Like Firkser, recipe developer and cookbook author Andy Baraghani has a huge collection of antique and one-off bowls — but he says these classic Pillivuyt ones are his very favorite to eat out of. “They’re the actual perfect size for pasta and soup, and while I generally avoid serveware that is overly glossy, these have the right amount of sheen to them,” he says.
Strategist writer Brenley Goertzen uses her Jono Pandolfi bowls for snacks and setting out dips. She says they have a nice heft, but most of all she loves the contrast in the design: “The outside is a toasted color with some texture, and the inside has a smooth white glaze. It’s like a sweet surprise whenever I use them,” she says. The interior blue band adds a nice touch, too — both for looks and, as Goertzen uses it, as a fill line.
Hasami Porcelain’s bowls come in five sizes. (Each is the same height with varying diameters.) Recipe developer and cookbook author Jessie Sheehan has the ones in 5.5 inches and says they are perfect for a nice, slightly generous portion of whatever she’s eating: cereal, pasta, roasted vegetables, granola, cottage cheese, and more. She appreciates that they’re dishwasher and microwave safe, too. As for the design, she likes the straight sides and matte finish.
“We eat a lot of Chinese food, and I’m very partial to the rice bowls I buy at Wing On, Chinatown’s oldest continuously operating shop,” says writer and cook Ruth Reichl, who has been going there since she was a child. She has a collection of some older ones and buys new designs she likes as they come out.
This set of stackable bowls from Our Place replaced my old chipped Ikea ones — and they feel far from breakable. The walls are thick enough that I don’t feel I have to be too precious. I like the size, too; they’re perfect for a generous serving of soup. And while I have a collection of fancier, wider, shallower bowls (more on those below), these are ideal if I’m eating a grain salad for lunch at my desk or fried rice for dinner while watching a movie. The high sides mean I’m less likely to make a mess. Recipe developer and cookbook author Carissa Stanton is a fan too.
Fable’s bowls have a similar wide bottom as Our Place’s but with a bit more of an organic shape overall — a feature that Strategist writer Jeremy Rellosa appreciates. “They have slight imperfections to their shape for a less mass-manufactured quality, and the matte finish on the ceramic gives it a homey feel,” he says.
Yes, I just knocked my old Ikea bowls a bit — but they did hold up for several years before they chipped. At $5 apiece, that’s not too bad. And for New Yorker food columnist Helen Rosner, they lasted even longer: “After 15 years of heavy, heavy use, I’m just now starting to see a couple of chips around the edges,” she says. “They’re absolutely the most basic bowls you can own. Good size, good depth, and can use them for absolutely everything.”
These from John Julian are another simple porcelain option, recommended by Olivia Pollock, senior brand director of Evite, who uses them at dinner parties and family weeknight meals alike. She loves their shape and roundness, saying they’re not too wide but still rather deep. She uses the largest for soup and hearty rice bowls but likes that they have smaller options, too, for snacks and cereal. (Plus her kids prefer the medium size for dinners.)
[Editor’s note: These bowls are listed in pounds, so the price shown is an approximate conversion in U.S. dollars.]
For bigger portions, or anything she wants to feel “extra special,” Rosner turns to Sarah Kersten’s Ramen Bowls. (Kersten is the aforementioned maker of my shallow bowls, too, and I’m obsessed with all of her work.) “They’re enormous, weighty, and unbelievably gorgeous,” Rosner says. “They’re also 50 bucks each, which is bonkers, but I haven’t broken them yet, and cost-per-use-wise I’m definitely under a dollar.”
Kate Berry, chief creative officer of Domino magazine and contributing editor at Saveur magazine, has a lot of bowls she has collected over the years antiquing and traveling — but these are her go-to for everyday use. “They’re lightweight, hold a lot, and are the perfect simple shape,” she says. Founder of Hedley & Bennett Ellen Marie Bennett loves them, too, pointing to their “super-beautiful porcelain shine on the inside with an amazing matte finish on the outside.”
Sylvan Mishima Brackett, owner of Rintaro in San Francisco, got his first Apilco pieces from Chez Panisse, where he used to work. When the restaurant collaborated with Heath Ceramics to create custom tableware, it gave away the formerly used Apilco pieces to the staff. “I’ve stuck with them ever since,” Brackett says. He likes the white color because it lets the food be the star and says the bowls are the perfect size and weight, working well for ice cream and soup.
Several people told me they love Pomelo Casa with two citing the company’s very small bowl (useful for things like salt and olive pits). But social-media consultant and writer Rachel Karten loves the medium size. “This is the bowl I reach for when I need a vessel for popcorn with nutritional yeast, or cacio e pepe, or a big chopped salad,” she says. “I love the hand-painted design and bright coral color. Just a joy to eat out of.”
Just as with Heath’s plates, the brand’s bowls are a popular choice, garnering recommendations from chef, author, and founder of Forts Ferry Farm Emma Hearst; Valerie Gordon, chef and founder of Valerie Confections; and Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang. “I love the timelessness of Heath,” Gordon says. “They’re not seasonal or a reference to a specific era. They just say ‘relaxed elegance.’ The muted tones that we chose are glorious backdrops for food.” Senior editor Jen Trolio likes the Dessert Bowl from the same line.
“These are my everyday, every meal go-to bowl,” says fashion designer, culinary creator, and lifestyle expert Peter Som. “They’re a classic Chinese blue-and-white rice-pattern bowl that I grew up with but supersize.” Indeed, it’s more common to see them around five inches, he says, but these can hold everything: soup, leftovers, granola, eggs. “The rounded and gentle curve of the bowl keeps food in but gives you enough room to maneuver spoons, forks, and chopsticks,” Som says.
Recipe developer and food stylist Sue Li and Strategist writer Erin Schwartz own Muji’s bowls (as with the plates, Li has a brighter white that isn’t currently available). Schwartz loves the color, describing it as a “nice, subtle off-white without the chunky, thick-walled feel that you get from some inexpensive bowls.” Strategist senior editor Hilary Reid owns other bowls from Muji: the Muji White Porcelain Rice Bowl, which she mostly uses for things like nuts or sour cream to serve with blini. “It’s a perfectly petite size,” she says.
Two Strategist staffers, writer Lauren Ro and Trolio, own Sur La Table’s full Bistro set and love the bowls that come with it. To start, they’re highly durable: Ro has had hers since 2019 and Trolio since 2010, and both have had minimal chipping with regular use over all the years. The line has been around for a long time and shows no signs of going anywhere — a bonus if you ever want to expand or replace any broken items. Trolio likes that the bowls are simple: “My favorite thing about them is that they don’t offend me in any way,” she says. That’s especially saying something given how long she’s had them. Ro appreciates that plainness, too, but says the slightly flared lip makes them look a bit elegant and elevated. And both say they’re the perfect size for cereal, soups, and stews.
Ro also uses Corelle’s six-inch and 11-inch bowls (the same maker as food stylist Rebecca Jurkevich’s preferred plates). “They’re lightweight; durable, which makes them great for kids; a little bit old-school; and go with everything,” she says. “Plus they’re always available.”
Pasta Bowls and Blates
East Fork’s Everyday Bowl garnered the most recommendations of any single bowl on this list, from recipe developer and cookbook author Julia Turshen, recipe developer and cookbook author Alexis deBoschnek, Rosner, Yang, and myself. The main appeal is the versatile size: DeBoschnek uses them for soup, stew, and pasta and as a bigger bowl for dip or marinated olives and feta when hosting, while Rosner likes them for lunch and Yang notes that they are ideal in terms of aperture and how they sit in your hand. They have a nice heft to them, and the color options are all super-pretty.
These are my most-prized pieces of tableware. They were a splurge for me, but I use them truly every day and only one has ever broken (fully my fault, as I knocked it with a lot of force from the counter to the ground by accident). Other than that, there’s not a chip or scratch to be found. They’re reminiscent of Heath’s and East Fork’s bowls: a gorgeous slope, thick walls, and stunning glazes (I have three different colors, and they mix and match so beautifully together). I like that you can buy them individually, as I plan on adding to my collection as I’m able. And even though the size is small, I use them for dinner all the time (sometimes with a second helping, which is how I prefer to eat anyway) — though Kersten does make a larger entrée bowl, too.
Rosner also uses these Bistro bowls from Crate & Barrel. “When I went looking recently for new ones, I was disappointed by how many are too small to hold a proper quantity of dinner food. It’s like the manufacturers refuse to accept that we’re going to be using them in lieu of plates,” she says. “These are blessedly dinner-size.” She likes that they’re simple with a “nice depth and good width,” too.
New York City’s famed Italian restaurant Il Buco Vita has a homewares shop that sells Italian-made and -inspired ceramics. (I own some smaller bowls and a pitcher in this exact pattern but in blue.) The pasta bowls in the line come recommended by Botanica’s other co-owner, Heather Sperling, who loves that the brushstroke style is quite distinct, giving “total Italian-vineyard-alfresco-dinner vibes,” she says. The wide lip is a lovely design touch too.
Fable’s Pasta Bowls are a favorite of three people: Rellosa (who recommended the cereal bowls above, too), Goertzen, and Stanton. All of them say that the size is perfect — for pasta, yes, but also for grain bowls, skillet meals, scrambled eggs, salads, and curries. Basically, they’re super-versatile. “They’re also really gorgeous and a great price point for the quality,” Stanton says.
Another pick from Mud Australia is the wider, shallower bowl, recommended by prop and interior stylist Kira Corbin. These bowls are made from tinted porcelain, which makes them “durable and strong but still light, thin, and delicate-feeling,” she says. “They are the ultimate in understated elegance in my opinion.” She likes that the bottom is wide and flat enough that you can comfortably cut into food but the lip is high so anything that might try to escape a flat plate, like rolling peas or tiny grains of rice, stays contained.
Strategist associate editor Jenna Milliner-Waddell bought these when she first moved into an apartment by herself four years ago. “They aren’t anything I’d pass down,” she says, “but they were the perfect starter plates.” They’ve been subjected to some scratches, but the wear doesn’t bother her (especially after four years of use). And they fit her other nonnegotiable requirements: the ability to go in the dishwasher and stack compactly for limited storage space. (Although they’re called “plates” on the site — and Milliner-Waddell does use them as such sometimes — she says the sides are high enough to serve dishes like curries, whereas “something more brothy would be tough to eat.”)
“A lot of coupe bowls are small, but these are actually about the size of a plate,” says recipe developer and writer Caroline Chambers. “And it’s such a more enjoyable experience to use the sides to perfectly scoop food onto your fork.” I also have a set and agree they’re big — but it’s nice to have the option, especially when I have company over and have made multiple components of a meal or I’m eating something I want a lot of, like a hearty salad. Because of their size, I also use them often as serving bowls for sides. They’re fairly heavy, but this makes them feel durable. And I find the bright white porcelain (which has zero scratches or chips after several months of regular use) to be a nice counterpoint to other, more earthy ceramics in my collection (plus the deep-blue rim gives them just a little bit of visual appeal).
Recipe developer and cookbook author Claire Saffitz recently invested in a new set of dinnerware, doing a “huge amount of research” to find the pieces that checked her many boxes. She calls these “some of the nicest bowls I’ve seen,” pointing to the variation in shape from vessel to vessel and the creamy texture of the glaze. She also says they’re perfect for pasta but also deep enough to work for soup.
“Every piece in the Permanent Collection is thoughtfully designed for aesthetic function,” says photographer Andrea Gentl. These “gorgeous green glazed” ones are a favorite in her extensive dishware collection because they’re practical and dishwasher safe and the perfect size for things like soupy beans and risotto. Cookbook author and owner of Permanent Collection Fanny Singer, who uses them herself, designed them to be just that: “I’m of the belief that ‘everyday’ and ‘special occasion’ plates should be one and the same,” she says. The bowls are hand-thrown by the Los Angeles–based ceramicist Shoshi Watanabe.
Heath strikes again, this time with its Rim Line, which features a wide lip around a shallow bowl. The bowls come recommended by Hearst, and recipe developer and cookbook author Dan Pelosi uses them for “the endless pasta I make,” he says, but they’re also perfect for soup, salad, or a classic meat-and-three. “They feel great in your hand, and the rim helps keep everything on the plate and not on our couch,” he says. For another wide, shallow option from the brand, recipe developer and cookbook author Odette Williams likes the Chez Panisse Soup Bowl.
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