Generally speaking, flatware has one job: Get food from your plate to your mouth. But it&#;s also part of your whole dining room presentation, so it should also look good and hold up to everyday use. To find the best silverware sets that succeed in both form and function, I overloaded my silverware organizer with 9 popular flatware styles and used them all for a few weeks to see how they felt in my hand&#;and how well they held up in the not&#;so-delicate hands of my kids. And, yes, I put them all in the dishwasher. Repeatedly.
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Before I ordered enough flatware to supply a small restaurant, I spent a lot of time researching different sets, with a goal of offering a variety of styles, finishes, and price points. I narrowed down my shortlist based on materials, versatility, variety, popularity, and cost. I also spent a lot of time reading customer reviews to ensure that, overall, the people who&#;d been using these sets at home were happy with their purchases; if a set had a lot of negative reviews, I didn&#;t even bother testing it for inclusion on this list.
Whether you like your flatware shiny, matte, ornate, or completely unadorned, there&#;s a set for you below. Keep reading to see how each of the nine best silverware sets lived up to the hype.
Made In&#;s DTC cookware and tableware is manufactured responsibly in partner facilities around the world,and is used in restaurants from New York to Los Angeles and in between. The brand&#;s restaurant-quality stainless-steel flatware is my top pick for silverware sets to use at home, too, because it&#;s both casual and elegant. The handles have a curvy, timeless shape and there are zero embellishments (save for the tiny &#;made in Italy&#; stamped on the forks and spoons) so it would work with just about any kind of tablescape from shabby chic to super modern. Each piece is well balanced and substantial without being too big or heavy and the polished 18/10 stainless steel makes it resistant to corrosion and scratches. Given the quality and timeless appeal of this flatware, the price is pretty reasonable too; at the time of publishing you can get four five-piece place settings (20 pieces total) for just under $200. I&#;ve used this set at home for more than a year now, and though it shows some very minimal signs of heavy use, it still looks great.
Material: 18/10 stainless steel
Pieces in each place setting: Dinner fork, salad fork, tablespoon, dessert/teaspoon, dinner knife
Additional pieces available: No
Dishwasher-safe: Yes
Mepra Fantasia Flatware, 5-Piece Place Setting
It's hard to find colorful bistro-style flatware without those cheap-looking silver dots on bloated plastic handles, and it&#;s near impossible to find any two-tone flatware that doesn&#;t have at least a handful of customer complaints regarding subpar materials and durability issues. But this popular Italian-made line from Mepra is high quality&#;it&#;s made of 18/10 stainless steel with resin handles&#;and there are a number of color options, though the color availability varies by retailer. It&#;s also dishwasher-safe. Overall, it&#;s a great little set and, I do mean little&#;while most of the pieces are fairly comparable in measurement to the corresponding pieces in other flatware sets, the teaspoon is practically toddler-size and more like a dessert spoon or sugar spoon. But perhaps it was always meant to stir a tiny little cup of Italian espresso.
Materials: 18/10 stainless steel and resin
Pieces in each place setting: Dinner fork, salad/dessert fork, tablespoon, teaspoon, dinner knife
Additional pieces available: Yes
Dishwasher-safe: Yes
My (admittedly not colorful) Mepra set on the left with its tiny spoon, next to Made In&#;s flatware set.
Sometimes I look at super modern flatware and just know the artsy shapes are not at all conducive to getting sufficient amounts of food from a plate or bowl into my mouth (Exhibit A: the three tiny tines on this fork, which looks like some sort of awful spork I&#;d be forced to use on a camping trip before giving up and using my bare hands to scoop cold beans straight from a can). No, I want my flatware to be as functional as it is stylish, which is why I love the Jaxson line from Fortessa. It gets its modern look from slender four-sided handles, which are nicely weighted and uniform across every utensil in the five-piece place setting (the knife handle is just barely bigger than the others) and almost perfectly round spoon heads. Importantly, the parts that are meant to hold food, like the fork tines, actually do. This flatware is made from 18/10 stainless steel, and though some retailers offer it with mirror-finished handles, I prefer the brushed handles for the contrast and visual interest.
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We're glad you asked! There are several reasons why some cost more than others:
The care taken during the final steps of manufacturing is one of the top determinations of why some patterns cost more.
Edges - In lower-priced patterns, a machine will typically stamp out a squared edge that is usually quick-polished to prevent very sharp edges. You may still have a sharp edge on the handle, but it's only sharp enough to be uncomfortable. The Silver Superstore does not sell patterns that have a rough edge like this.
Tines - Higher-priced patterns will have more care given to polishing the fork tines. While it's very subtle and subconscious, your lips and tongue will feel the slight roughness. When you eat with a pattern that has well-polished tines, it feels smooth all the way through. These patterns typically sell for $30 or more per place setting.
Roundness - Higher quality patterns can feature more rounded handles, and some will even be completely round.
There are three main methods for constructing a knife. The first method involves stamping a single piece of metal into the shape of a knife. The "blade" area is generally made a bit thinner, and is almost always serrated. This is the least expensive method for constructing a knife, and its cutting performance is poor to fair, depending on the manufacturer.
The second method is to use the "drop forge" technique, where molten steel is poured into a mold, and is fashioned into the shape of a knife. Again, the "blade" area is made thinner than the handle, and is also usually serrated. Most manufacturers who use this technique will spend a little more time on the blade finishing, and its performance is fair to moderate.
The third method is to use a hollow knife handle, insert a high-quality carbon-steel cutting blade, then sealing the two together. These knives are called "hollow handle" knives. With this technique, the manufacturer can offer a variety of different quality knife blades. Many of these blades are serrated, but in the higher quality of patterns they are not, due to their already superior cutting edge. The performance of this type of knife is moderate to excellent.
High-carbon blades are used in better kitchen knives, due to their superior performance. The only downside is that high-carbon blades are less stain-resistant than the other flatware pieces. Flatware manufacturers are always working to create a good balance of dishwasher resistance and superior cutting performance.
When shopping for stainless flatware, you will often see the numbers "18/8" or "18/10" or "18/0", or even "13% Chrome". These numbers are often very confusing, so let's look at the details behind these numbers. All of these numbers refer to the percentages of Chromium and Nickel found in the stainless steel alloy. They do not refer to the weight of the flatware.
Chromium gives a flatware pattern its rust-resistant qualities. It is the best available in consumer stainless steel flatware patterns. The presence of Nickel gives a flatware pattern a superior shine, which is intended to mimic new silver flatware. Nickel is very expensive, and is a major contributor to the price of flatware.
So, here's what the numbers mean:
Which one is better? Well, if you want flatware with a high polish finish and superior rust resistant qualities, pick a flatware that is 18/8 or 18/10. If you are opening a restaurant, and want to keep your costs down, as well as being able to wash it several times a day in the dishwasher, pick a 13/0 or 18/0 flatware pattern with a cheap, flat handle knife.
One more thing, the difference between 18/8 and 18/10 is non-existent. It's a little deceiving on the part of the manufacturers who are listing their products as 18/10. The steel manufacturers who create sheets of stainless steel for the flatware makers don't use those numbers. They sell what is called Grade 304, which contains at least 18% Chromium, and a range between 8% and 10% Nickel. Most of them fall around 8.3%.
By contrast, a company that makes 18/10 pots and pans purchases a stainless steel called Grade 305, which contains a minimum of 10% Nickel. This is required, because pots and pans are shaped in such a way that the 10% is an absolute necessity. Grade 305 is almost never used by flatware manufacturers, since it is way too expensive to be profitable.
This may be way more information than you need, but it's provided so that you don't dismiss a pattern simply because it says 18/8 instead of 18/10. It's just a marketing thing, so don't be fooled!
While all forks, knives, and spoons basically share the same characteristics, there are subtle differences in silverware designs that have a big impact on how it feels in the hand, how well the weight is distributed, and how it rests on the table. The Silver Superstore offers over 70 patterns with Plain handle designs, but the price range varies from $8.95 to $79.95 per place setting. There aren't complex designs, but all of the characteristics listed above contribute to the price differences.
In the past few years, the "boxed set" of silverware has become very popular in retail stores (we offer many of them as well). The advantages of buying a complete set like this are obvious, since you simply purchase one complete set for 12 people, usually for $50 to $100, and your shopping is done. We offer these same complete sets at a discount, and many people are very happy with them. There are a few drawbacks to the boxed set:
Of course, you can always just purchase a new boxed set whenever you lose a significant number of pieces. Shaking up the silverware design on your tabletop every couple of years isn't such a bad thing!
Overall, you truly do get what you pay for. Now, whether those qualities are worth it to you is the question to ask. We can tell you that nearly every staff member at the Silver Superstore has upgraded their flatware patterns since they started working here. There really is a difference worth paying for, especially since the durability of good stainless steel flatware will last you a lifetime.
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