Best Everyday Dinnerware Sets: Stoneware and Porcelain

Corelle is made of Vitrelle, a tempered glass that Corning introduced in 1970: two kinds of glass laminated into three layers, clear outside and opaque white inside. The result is a plate that is thin and light but resists chips and cracks far better than ceramic. Winter Frost White is the plain white pattern, and the set is six dinner plates, six appetizer plates and six soup or cereal bowls.

It is the right set for a young family, a first kitchen or a rental, and the best option for anyone who finds heavy stoneware hard to lift. The glass is non-porous, dishwasher safe and rated by Corelle for the microwave and for reheating in a preheated oven up to 350°F.

Skip it if you want dishes that feel like pottery. Corelle is thin and sounds like glass. Mind the maker's warning, too: sudden temperature changes, such as pouring cold liquid onto a hot plate, can shatter it.

The catch. When Vitrelle does break, it can shatter into sharp fragments rather than cracking in two.

Villeroy & Boch has made ceramics since 1748, and Artesano Original is its casual porcelain: a warm creamy white with slightly irregular, handmade-looking shapes, made in Germany of the company's premium porcelain. It is the everyday set that also looks right at a dinner party.

This set is built for how people eat now. Instead of soup bowls and mugs it has four each of a 10.5 inch dinner plate, an 8.5 inch salad plate, a 9 inch, 16 ounce pasta bowl and a 5.5 inch, 14.5 ounce rice bowl. Porcelain is harder and thinner than stoneware, so these are lighter to stack for their size. They are dishwasher and microwave safe.

Skip it if you want a bright, cool white; Artesano is creamy by design. The Artesano range is large, with serving pieces in the same glaze.

The catch. No mugs or soup bowls in this set, so a household that eats cereal every morning will need to add them.

Le Creuset's stoneware comes in the same colors as its cast iron, and the dinnerware set is the most capable everyday set here. Four 10.5 inch dinner plates, four salad plates, four soup bowls and four mugs, in Oyster, a warm pale gray.

The glaze is the point. Le Creuset describes it as non-porous, scratch-resistant and nearly nonstick, resisting chips, stains and crazing, and rates its stoneware for the freezer, oven, broiler, microwave and dishwasher, and for metal utensils. You can warm the plates in the oven before dinner or finish a gratin in the soup bowls.

It is heavy, as all good stoneware is, and the set is the priciest here by some margin. Skip it if you store plates overhead, or if you want a quieter, matte look.

The catch. Weight. A stack of eight of these plates is a two-handed lift.