How do you clean flatware?

The answer to this question depends on the material of your flatware. Is it stainless steel, silver-plated, or sterling silverware? At River Twice, Rucker's team "presoaks the stainless steel cutlery throughout service, before washing. Then we run them through the dishwasher twice and polish them just with a microfiber towel. As for silverware, which I think is neat – my mom has a bunch – that are more heirloom items, you polish differently."

How many flatware settings should you have?

Rucker has about 75 sets of flatware at River Twice. "We made sure we had enough for one and a half turns and when adding outdoor seating during the pandemic, we have had to buy and add to our flatware collection," he says. "Ideally, we'd have enough flatware for two full turns, so with a 20-seat restaurant, that would be 40 sets."

How can you tell if flatware is good or heirloom quality?

Sterling silver pieces are always stamped with "925." But how else can you tell if it's a good piece? Well, you can ask the person you're buying it from. "The dinner sets at Elwood are all unique antiques we have found over the years when we put the restaurant together and were collected from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Washington DC," says Ko. You can always talk to the owners of the stores to see how pieces came to them. Regarding restaurant-quality stainless steel flatware, there are generally two chrome/nickel percentages. "Chrome and nickel were introduced to restaurant and commercial stainless steel, to prolong it, so it doesn't need to be cleaned up constantly," says Rucker. "Stainless steel flatware generally comes in 18/10 and 18/0 variations. The amount of chrome and nickel render stainless steel easy to clean and almost smudge-free, which is important in a restaurant – nickel's presence makes it even easier to clean."

The 10 Best Flatware Sets of 2023, According to Chefs

We consider flatware to be the jewelry of the table. Surveying a range of avid hosts, designers, decorators, architects, restaurateurs, and chefs, we asked what their everyday flatware looked like. To find the best flatware sets, we also peeked into our own extensive kitchen utensil drawers to weigh what we loved about each individual piece.

The sets used in several of our vintage-loving experts' homes and restaurants are heirlooms or antiques. With that aesthetic in mind, we asked our experts to recommend sets that look traditional but are actually quite durable and easy to maintain. Read on for all of our top picks for the best flatware sets to upgrade your dinnerware collection.

CB2 20-Piece Essence Brushed Black Flatware Set

CB2

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CB2's Essence set comes in brushed black and brushed champagne finishes. Its hexagonal profile lends "visual and tactile intrigue" and "brushed handles transition into the shinier head." This set packs thoughtful design details – that transition is subtle and wonderful – into 18/0 (the stainless steel contains 18% chromium) formulated pieces (the knife is 13/0) with substantial heft.

"The details make all the difference when planning an event, and the right flatware has an impact. This doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money on your flatware," says Kerri Sitrin, Founder of Sitrin Consulting, which does events and marketing for food & beverage brands in Philadelphia. "CB2 has a variety of options in different colors and tones that I can rely on," she says. "This flatware can provide extra polish to clients' events while staying on budget."

Price at time of publish: $149

Material: Stainless steel
Pieces included: Four place settings of a 5-piece set, including salad fork, dinner fork, knife, spoon, and teaspoon
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Anthropologie

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It's rare to find wood serving utensils that are dishwasher-safe, such as this set, but here we are. This Blue Pheasant set with clean, straight lines and simple metal beautifully blends stainless steel with maple.

"I love this set in particular because of the contrast between natural wood and shiny metal," says print and pattern designer Sarah Ng. The company Blue Pheasant makes a lot of stuff that is cute, and our understanding is that all their pieces are handmade. Blue Pheasant's pieces are unified by their simplicity and singular, unexpected details. Here that detail is the contrast of materials; in another set, it may be texture imprinted onto the handles of its knives, forks, and spoons.

Price at time of publish: $76

Material: Stainless Steel and Maple
Pieces included: One 5-piece set of knife, dinner fork, salad fork, soup spoon, and teaspoon
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Fortessa Arezzo 18/10 Stainless Steel Flatware 5 Piece Place Setting

Amazon

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With an 18/10 composition and a mirrored finish, Fortessa's Arezzo flatware (and all its other lines) are true workhorses for restaurant operations and the home. The pieces are sleek and modern but classic enough to fit into more traditional tablescapes.

Former chef and now owner of Accoutre, a specialty kitchen goods store in Richmond, Virginia, Rob Bland has long been a fan of Fortessa. "The variations I have been familiar with can be weighty or light while being sturdy, ergonomic, and pleasing in tactile senses, in either direction," says Bland. "The designs are playful and engaging while being pretty timeless, fitting a broad spectrum of preferences."

Price at time of publish: $50

Material: Stainless steel
Pieces included: One 5-piece set (salad fork, dinner fork, dinner spoon, knife, teaspoon)
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Hay

View On Hay.com

Designed by Swiss design studio BIG-GAME, Sunday is a flatware set with fluted handles and includes steak knives, forks, spoons, and teaspoons. The set includes five identical pieces, so you purchase five sets of five forks, five knives, etc.

"Table settings are very important to me since my husband and I love to entertain between our two homes in Asbury Park, NJ, and in Miami," says Nicole Paloux, a host and owner of PR firm Red Balloon Communications. "Each home has a completely different aesthetic, and the tabletop details help to tell the story." Her Miami home is a "new work in progress, but the house is a 1951 mid-century in a lush historic neighborhood, the vibe is very slinky and sexy, like Slim Aarons in Miami."

Price at time of publish: $40

Material: Stainless steel
Pieces included: 5 forks, spoons, knives, and tablespoons
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

MoMA

View On Moma.org

Made of 18/8 stainless steel, this set designed by Sori Yanagi, whose work can be seen in Moma's collection, is organic and modern, blending warm curves with uniquely bubble-shaped spoons and curved fork tines. Bland also raves about this iconic Yanagi flatware set, calling it an "excellent representation" of what he looks for: "design-driven, functional tools, for home cooks and professionals alike, to enhance the pleasures of cooking and eating."

Bland's shop Accoutre skews heavily toward handcrafted, minimalist, and exquisite Japanese design. This set fits perfectly into his aesthetic: functional, beautiful, and elevating the enjoyment of food, no matter how simple the dish or the dining room table. Its 18/8 stainless steel formulation is also practical, easy to clean, and durable.

Price at time of publish: $55

Material: Stainless steel
Pieces included: One 5-piece set of salad fork, dinner fork, knife, soup spoon, and teaspoon
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Anthropologie

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Included in our review of the best gold flatware, this rustic set has a special, bespoke appeal with a beaded texture on each handle. A great value at 20 pieces for under $200, it leaves room in your budget for other special items, like upgraded holiday serveware or gorgeous new stoneware dinnerware.

This set has a gently antiqued look and works with virtually any decor style. It’s a timeless set that will make everyone happy. Thanks to this set's durable quality and vintage charm, this gold flatware set easily gets a spot on our list. We guarantee your dinner guests will ask where you got these golden beauties.

Price at time of publish: $198

Material: Stainless steel with old plating
Pieces included: One 5-piece setting with a salad fork, dinner fork, butter knife, teaspoon, and soup spoon
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Amazon

View On Amazon View On Williams-Sonoma

This meticulously handcrafted olivewood and stainless steel 5-piece place setting stems from a family of top-quality French knife makers whose traditions date back over a hundred years. "Laguiole" is the name of a small village in the Auvergne region that lends its name to the traditional Occitan pocket knife, from which Laguiole dinner sets borrow their distinctly designed handles. The set also comes in a variety of resin finishes.

Kristina Brodie is a flavor scout and product consultant who procures specialty ingredients and items from around the world. She's also one of the best hostesses we know. Brodie regularly throws open the doors of her home to welcome in chefs, butchers, and cheese mongers, who dig into her handmade pierogies and vegetables roasted over an open fire with Laguiole knives. "It's a storied French brand. It's sort of old-world and whimsical. I love the mixed media of it. I host a lot and am really hard on my flatware. I go through a lot of it and the Jean Dubost Laguiole line from Williams Sonoma is my go-to daily set."

Price at time of publish: $178

Material: Varnished Italian olivewood and stainless steel
Pieces included: 5-piece place setting includes salad fork, dinner fork, soup spoon, dinner knife, and dessert spoon
Dishwasher-safe: No

Lenox 829739 French Perle 65-Piece Flatware Set

Amazon

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A charming and comprehensive 65-piece set has basically everything you might need to host a large dinner party. This set has practical 18/10 stainless steel construction, delicate and vintage-inspired beaded patterns around the handles, and a whopping 65 pieces in one set. It's dishwasher safe and doesn't require any additional care, just a lot of storage space in your kitchen drawers.

If you are seeking a robust and comprehensive set, and you either host frequently or have a large family prone to losing pieces of flatware, this set is calling to you.

Price at time of publish: $190

Material: Stainless steel
Pieces included: 12 five-piece sets of salad forks, dinner forks, dinner knives, soup spoons, and teaspoons, but also a cold meat fork, pierced tablespoon, tablespoon, sugar spoon, and butter serving knife
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Liberty Tabletop Sheffield 65-Piece Flatware Set

Amazon

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This vintage-inspired set made of high-quality 18/10 stainless steel looks like an heirloom set but is dishwasher safe with a mirror finish. Architect Jenny Ko had a hand in designing Elwood, with her husband and head chef, Chef Adam Diltz. Elwood is a restaurant whose mission is to reinvigorate Pennsylvania's country cuisine. Think white linen tablecloths, the most elaborately presented scrapple (served dramatically stabbed upon antlers), and afternoon tea service on the weekends. Elwood has one of the most unique flatware collections in Philadelphia, if not the nation.

"We tend to go for silverware which gives off a nice luster and requires periodic polishing, though even when it's not freshly polished, it still feels warm," says Ko. "We have many special utensils in circulation at the restaurant – pastry forks, butter knives, cheese knives, sugar tongs, serving forks, and spoons." Liberty Tabletop's Sheffield flatware has modern practicality – it's made of 18/10 stainless steel and thus ideal for heavy-duty restaurant use, but you can opt for sets that include a litany of specialty serving utensils.

Price at time of publish: $379

Material: Stainless steel
Pieces included: 40-piece set of 8 place settings (salad fork, dinner fork, knife, dinner spoon, teaspoon), though several other sets are available
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Saks fifth avenue

View On Wayfair View On Gilt.com View On Lordandtaylor.com

This ergonomic stainless-steel set is coated with PVD titanium, making its surface ultra-hard and durable. Merpa's stainless steel is coated with PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) Titanium coating (a thin film originally developed by NASA) and is often found on luxury watches. Its product details note that its production process is "not galvanic and does not produce pollution." This set has a slim profile, like many of Mepra's collections, and it is unique and delightful to behold. A rainbow-hued flatware set? Yes, please!

Price at time of publish: $269

Material: Coated stainless steel
Pieces included: One 5-piece set of a table fork, table knife, dessert spoon, dessert fork, and coffee spoon
Dishwasher-safe: Yes

Our Favorite Flatware

Everyone's "everyday" flatware is vastly different from person to person. As much as personal style factors into our choices, material, and care became the utmost important factors in deciding what flatware suits our lives. Busy? Running a restaurant or hosting pop-up dinners open to the public? You'll need something stainless steel and sturdy like CB2's set. Hosting hundreds of dinner parties? You'll also need something stainless steel and sturdy but may want to opt for flatware imbued with history and with a story you can either tell your guests or use to accent your magnificent home cooking, like Kristina Brodie's favorite Jean Dubost Laguiole Set.

Factors to Consider

Style

Sometimes butter knives just don't cut it! Don't be afraid to mix and match, especially when it comes to integrating a specialty steak knife with your flatware set, or even combining different materials such as gold flatware and stainless steel.

Quantity

With great heft in flatware comes even more storage woes if you're dealing with limited space, so ask yourself, how many pieces do you truly need? Do I host enough to require all these salad forks? A good rule of thumb for chefs is to have enough pieces for two turns – that's restaurant-speak for filling the restaurant twice in a night. Translated to the home kitchen, we recommend having enough flatware to host a dinner party twice in one night, while only running the dishwasher once.

Material and Care

Most modern flatware is going to be made of stainless steel (typically 18/10 or 18/0, illustrating the percentage of chromium and nickel) though several on this list are mixed media, comprised of stainless-steel heads and wooden handles. The mixed media sets tend to be a little more on the delicate side and better for home use than restaurant use.

If you're going the stainless-steel flatware route, any dishwashing residue can be quickly rubbed away with a microfiber cloth and a proper stainless steel cleaner. Silver and silver-plated flatware will require a bit more elbow grease or soaking with baking soda to shine. Choose a material that suits your lifestyle and cleaning habits.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you clean flatware?

The answer to this question depends on the material of your flatware. Is it stainless steel, silver-plated, or sterling silverware? At River Twice, Rucker's team "presoaks the stainless steel cutlery throughout service, before washing. Then we run them through the dishwasher twice and polish them just with a microfiber towel. As for silverware, which I think is neat – my mom has a bunch – that are more heirloom items, you polish differently."
How many flatware settings should you have?

Rucker has about 75 sets of flatware at River Twice. "We made sure we had enough for one and a half turns and when adding outdoor seating during the pandemic, we have had to buy and add to our flatware collection," he says. "Ideally, we'd have enough flatware for two full turns, so with a 20-seat restaurant, that would be 40 sets."
How can you tell if flatware is good or heirloom quality?

Sterling silver pieces are always stamped with "925." But how else can you tell if it's a good piece? Well, you can ask the person you're buying it from. "The dinner sets at Elwood are all unique antiques we have found over the years when we put the restaurant together and were collected from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Washington DC," says Ko. You can always talk to the owners of the stores to see how pieces came to them.

Regarding restaurant-quality stainless steel flatware, there are generally two chrome/nickel percentages. "Chrome and nickel were introduced to restaurant and commercial stainless steel, to prolong it, so it doesn't need to be cleaned up constantly," says Rucker. "Stainless steel flatware generally comes in 18/10 and 18/0 variations. The amount of chrome and nickel render stainless steel easy to clean and almost smudge-free, which is important in a restaurant – nickel's presence makes it even easier to clean."

Our Expertise

Kiki Aranita is a chef, food writer, and recipe developer. She likes to brag about being able to cook absolutely anything with a pair of chopsticks, whether it be frying omelets or baking a cake, but she has a hopeless addiction to collecting antique silverware (especially teaspoons and salad forks). She has tested products for major publications like USA Today in addition to Food and Wine. She talked to designers, chefs, restaurateurs, and cutlery experts for this piece.