Best bowls 2023: selected by our shopping experts

The best bowls are all the dinnerware you need. From pastas and salads to desserts and cereal, they cover every meal. Our experts found the best for each food.

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If I had to choose one piece of dinnerware to eat all of my meals off, it would be a bowl. The perfect bowl works for pretty much every meal.

If you make a warming soup, you'll want the perfect bowl to cup your hands around. When you've made a beautiful pasta dish, you'll want a flatter surface to spear each piece off.

You might have bought a one of the best dinnerware sets already, but different meals require different types of bowls, so I have searched the internet to find the best for every occasion.

I've thought about every bowl-worthy occasion and searched all of the best bowls on the internet. Here are fifteen of the best. I think you'll be bowled - sorry - over by them.

Best for pasta

Material: stonewareSize: 7.75 x 2 inchesCapacity: 36 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 4

These minimalistic bowls balance rustic and refined design. The glazed inside makes for easy cleaning, whilst the flat bottom and tall, thin sides will keep all your food inside the bowl. These are available in a range of colors, perfect for any kitchen.

Best for soup

Material: stonewareSize: 7.4 x 6.9 inchesCapacity: 22 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 4

Crafted with thick stoneware and a vibrant glaze, most people found that these bowls were tough to chip. They're available in a range of colors with matching pasta bowls and salad plates too.

Best for cereal

Material: stonewareSize: 3 x 6 inchesCapacity: 20 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 4

These beautiful bowls have been Anthropologie's top rated set for over eleven years. Crafted in Portugal, the glazed finish makes them easy to clean too.

Best side bowl

Material: stonewareSize: 3 x 1.4 inchesCapacity: 2 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 1

Given the chance, I would buy all my bowls from East Fork. This is their smallest size, perfect for sides, olives, dipping sauces, or small snacks. It's glazed inside, so easy to clean too.

Best for salad

Material: porcelainSize: 8.5 x 1.75 inchesCapacity: 30 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 4

These are the perfect bowls for everything, but they're at their best for salads. Their shallow curve keeps sauces and dressings from spilling, but the flat bottom makes it easy to use your knife and fork on tougher leaves and vegetables.

Best for ice cream

Material: stonewareSize: 5 x 2.1 inchesCapacity: 11 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 1

Ice cream bowls tend to be smaller, but this is the perfect size. It fits about two scoops and you can use it for dips, olives, and candy too. It's glazed on the inside to prevent staining too.

Best blate

Material: glazed stonewareSize: 9 x 1.5 inchesCapacity: 36 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 1

The only thing that rivals a bowl is a blate (bowl plate). This flat bowl is the best blate I can find. It sits with the security of a plate, but has steep, curved edges so you can eat curries, pastas, and stir fries without making a mess.

Best for serving

Material: stonewareSize: 9.84 x 2.95 inchesCapacity: 36 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 1

Whether it's your next fruit bowl or how you serve salads to the family, this organic, two-toned serving bowl perfect one for you. The fluting at the base adds some extra detail to this wide, beautiful bowl.

Best nesting

Material: stonewareSize: 6.25 x 2.3 inchesCapacity: 23.7 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 4

Strictly speaking, these are cereal bowls, but they're great for desserts, popcorn, crisps, cereal, and everything in between. The best part: they stack neatly together to save you room in your cupboards.

Best porcelain

Material: porcelainSize: 75.1 x 3.3 inchesCapacity: 24 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 1

Mud Australia make some of the most beautiful porcelain dinnerware. Their small noodle bowls are deep, perfect for cereal. I love the off-white color, which adds to the delicate, natural tone of these bowls.

Best clay

Material: claySize: 6.3 x 2.6 inchesCapacity: 30 fl ozDishwasher safe: yesMicrowave safe: yesSet size: 1

Crafted in Portugal, this everyday bowl is made for fruit, cereal, desserts and more. The white glaze prevents any staining, whilst showing off the beautiful, organic shape of the bowl.

Best coconut

Material: polished coconut shellSize: 6 x 6 inchesCapacity: 16 fl ozDishwasher safe: noMicrowave safe: noSet size: 1

This is the bowl that I use everyday. I love the natural coconut colors, especially against bright smoothie bowls and fruits. It's durable and quite small - perfect for snacks.

This will depend on what you're eating. If your food needs a spoon, use a deep, round bowl. If you'll use a knife and fork, a flatter bowl will be much more useful.

Porcelains and ceramics are generally the best materials for everyday bowls because they're affordable, durable, and easy to keep clean. However, I love my coconut bowl. You can hold it in one hand and there's something about the smooth organic shape that makes every meal in a coconut bowl feel wholesome.

Eating salads from a wooden bowl can help enhance the early feel of your food. The best shape is more like a blate, with a flat bottom, because it's easier to cut large vegetables or leafy greens on them.

Some people swear by pasta bowls. These wide and shallow bowls are extremely useful for a range of meals and the people who have them love them. These are particularly good for salads, stir fries, and grain bowls.

It's not that they're better, but bowls work for lots of different situations. They can help portion control, they work for wetter food like pastas and curries, and they're more tactile if you like to hold your dinnerware whilst you plate up. They're especially handy if you have mobility issues, because the relatively wide base and high sides make bowls more spill-proof.

Investing in a good set of bowls can cover your most basic dining needs. Flatter bowls are more versatile, but I love a deep bowl that I can cup with my hands and use a spoon to scoop out of. It's no secret that coconut bowls are my favorite, but I like to mix it up and use The White Company's simple Hampton Bowl for my meals. It's beautiful.

Before you work out which bowl will be best for you, think about the meals that you eat and how much storage you have. This might sway you towards nested bowls, deep bowls, or wide bowls. Whichever you choose, make sure you eat well from them.

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Laura is our eCommerce editor. Before Homes & Gardens she studied English at Oxford University. Alongside her studies, she qualified as a barista and trained as a master perfumer. This makes her our certified expert for all things coffee, candles, and fragrance. She has passed our five-step tests to become a certified Customer Advisor, making her our resident expert. Laura has worked for luxury retail brands, reinforcing the importance of quality and style over quantity and fads. She looks for products which have been designed with thoughtful finishes.

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