I use a paste of baking soda for marks.

Pfaltzgraff also makes a specialty cleaner for this purpose. Pfaltzgraff Stoneware & Porcelain Cleaner. It's about $10 for a bottle.

redecor8 - Where do you find the Pfaltzgraff cleaner? I have some Pfg dishes with a neutral center that I was just resigned to being worn looking! It would be wonderful to restore them.

I bought some at Bed Bath and Beyond once, but I've had the bottle quite a while. Maybe check online or eBay? It took the marks off, but they did come back with heavy use again. I don't have the dishes I used it on anymore; they were from Pottery Barn originally.

Thanks for that tip, Tina! I have used the Magic Eraser on any number of surfaces, but never thought about trying it on the dishes.

Barkeeper's Friend will also remove those marks from white dishes. It's a powder sold in a cardboard tube container (usually right next to the Comet) at most grocery stores. I have also seen it at Lowes. And it's CHEAP - like $2 for a big container.

It's actually a pretty indispensible cleaning item for me -- besides the marks on dishes, it's also miraculous at removing rust stains from sinks (like when I leave my paintbrush sit in the utility sink and it rusts onto the sink) and getting the layer of "white etchiness" off that that the dishwasher seems to leave on my stainless steel pots. It also gets the gray marks off that metal cookie sheets leave behind when I bump them into my white porcelain kitchen sink while washing them. Oh, and I used it once to remove a big scratch on the top of my glass cooktop (a friend of mine drug a pot across it) -- it didn't totally remove the scratch, but it made it look a heck of a lot better.

I love Barkeeper's Friend!