Crate and Barrel Cafeware II has been our everyday ware for 14 years. Still looks like new. But it is a bit heavier than you may be looking for.

Is the Aspen heavy?

We use Pottery Barn Caterer's. I wanted something simple and not heavy and these are perfect!

http://www.potterybarn.com/shop/dinnerware-entertaining/dinnerware-collections/caterers-box-dinnerware/

My just-5yo daughter manages fine with them.

We also have Crate & Barrel Aspen. I would not consider it heavy in weight. It's been durable for us. Simple and versatile. (Plates are Aspen, food bowl is FiestaWare.)

I'd like to replace my Walmart set. They are yellowing and have other discoloration I think due to my hard water, but could be just the quality of the dishes. It even may be something bleaching would fix. I bought them for temporary and then found out I really liked them.

I currently have the all white Corelle but looking at these, link below. They come in a couple all white styles and shapes. I'm liking this one because it doesn't have a rim, more open space on the plate for your food. Maybe that's not a good thing LOL

http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/the-cellar-12-pc.-coupe-set-only-at-macys?ID=2716219&CategoryID=79668&LinkType=&selectedSize=#fn=DINNERWARE_COMPONENT%3DDinnerware Sets%26sp%3D1%26spc%3D100%26ruleId%3D78|BS|BA%26slotId%3D26

Ikea also has nice all white pieces that are very affordable.

Williams Sonoma Brasserie. We have had ours since we got married 15 years ago and still going strong.

edited for spelling.

Restaurant China from a restaurant supply store. Very sturdy. Dirt cheap. Bought cases for less money than an 8 piece setting from Crate and Barrel or Williams Sonoma. And we have plenty for parties. And although I have yet to chip or break a piece (going on 10 years now) no worries if a piece does break because I have plenty of extras.

Sur La Table Bistro. I've had mine 4 years (24 place settings total - 4 'sets') and it goes from my formal table to the patio without so much as a knife mark, chip, and with heavy use. On sale about 3x a year, including now.

However, men don't like the hand feel of the 10 oz mugs if that's important to you. I bought a couple of cases of clear glass hot beverage mugs from a restaurant supply to solve that issue - those have been work horses just like the tableware.

For everyday use, we have Gorham Breckenridge from Macy's. However, while looking for a link, discovered that Macy's no longer has this china. After further Googling, found that it is at Bed, Bath and Beyond and on sale right now. https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/gorham-reg-breckenridge-40-piece-dinnerware-set-in-white/1046757906

Be careful what you buy! We received these Centura by Corning dishes for our wedding 46 years ago.

They were guaranteed to never break, and they never have. Maybe that's why they were discontinued in 1977. We did manage to get another 8 salad plates a few years ago online as that is the size we always run out of. Pretty and extraordinarily practical, but I might have liked some other dishes over all these years.

I would also recommend Crate and Barrel but take a look at World Market too. I have some smaller plates from them and durability is good.

Lots of great suggestions here. I strongly recommend porcelain. Most earthenware chips much more easily. Also, if you can, buy one piece first to see how it fits in your dishwasher. I currently have some Williams Sonoma white cereal bowls that I love except for how they don't fit nicely in my DW.

We're Corelle people. My mother has corelle from her 1973 wedding that still looks great (though the pattern is very 70s.) I've been told Corelle is the extreme opposite of trendy, but I don't care. The stuff is totally indestructible and a white plate is a white plate to me.

Algeasea: great point. Bowls are the biggest pain huh? I'll wait til my dishwasher arrives then do as you suggest with getting a single piece to see how it fits.

We have had Crate and Barrel Staccato for over 15 years - still not tired of them! For a while we used Correlle white (when the kids were toddlers) - but after one of them fell and shattered into millions of tiny shards I went back to the glass. At least if one breaks (has only happened by me dropping during hand washes) - it is not micro-bits that are impossible to clean up.

I have Macy's Hotel Collection in the round shape. I know you can buy some individually but I bought mine in sets of 8 which includes large plate, salad plate and bowl Mugs are separate. The large plate is huge and we use the salad plate as a regular sized plate.. It's a bone china so it's very hard yet thin at the same time.

So Corelle breaks into tiny shards? Hmmm probably not for me then. I have young kids (5 and 3)

I also have C&B Aspen for when I entertain (my everyday dishes are Villiroy & Boch). They have taken a lot of abuse at large family gathering and have no chips.

Corelle does break into a million pieces when it breaks. I've had them for 13 years and think I've broken 2 pieces, despite my 8 and 3 year old having dropped them multiple times. I do not like their mugs... just the plates, bowls, and serving pieces.

It can happen, but it's rare. In 40 years and two households we've only had one small bowl break and I think it was because of thermal shock (I took one hot out of the dishwasher and put ice cream in it.)

I think because it's so rarely broken--whatever it's made out--it's a mess when it does break.

Now I'm curious as to what it's made out of!

tempered glass, I think

So just did a quick google search. Apparently the new ones are prone to breaking into a zillion tiny shards and even exploding. Probably not for me. I can handle chips and breaks but tiny little shards is a deal breaker.

Hmm. Maybe I should get new dishes. There are some scary Corelle testimonies online. New dishes are cheaper than an ER visit. Yikes.

eta: going to check out the Sur La Table Bistro and the C&B Aspen porcelain sets as suggested above.

I like Fiestaware (available in white) but they are rather heavy. I'm also a fan of Apilco and Pillyvut porcelain (at Williams-Sonoma) but that may stretch the definition of everyday dinnerware

Benjebride it might just be the new ones after the new company took over.

I have Lenox Aspen Ridge which I absolutely love and have been indestructible for us. I just went on Macy's website to try to find them and it seems they have been discontinued. What a shame! I picked that pattern because it was sturdy, not too heavy, had plenty of room on the plate for food, and offered very large, wide bowls perfect for enormous salads. I'm sorry they don't make them anymore. I think they would have been perfect for you.

We also have Aspen from Crate and Barrel. Love it!

I have had expensive dishes, mid-priced dishes and Corelle dishes. All of my pricier dishes chipped. My early-onset arthritis in my hands loves the Corelle. And instead of plain white, I got several set of 8 with a red accent rim that's a little whimsical.

Corelle is my favorite. It does break into tiny shards when it breaks but in 45 years I have only broken maybe 2 or three pieces. Always the the soup/salad bowls. I have 4 different patterns, plain white, the withe with the embossed border, a white with blue trim and the Holly Berry Xmas set.

I have the Apilco from W-S and it's been fabulous! Bought a set from PB and also C&B and preferred the heavier weight of the Apilco. My young daughters could easily carry them, though.HTH!

We use our Apilco from WS daily. Still looks fresh after 18 years... and can be matched with our more interesting Anthropologie or blue and white dishes as my taste changes.

I think it's beautiful and timeless , and it's bone china .

Mikasa-Antique-White

Corelle. The only time I broke one was when I intentionally threw it as hard as I could. Saw some designs at Macy's that I've not seen other places.

After 25 years of Corelle, we upgraded to Mikasa Antique White and could not be more pleased. Like Ravencajun said, it's bone china. Mikasa has been making it for decades. Bought two 8-place settings/45 piece sets at BBB for around $100 each a few years ago. Found an additional 8 salad plates on a clearance rack at BBB for $8, so we have 24 of those-which is the plate that is by far the most used in the set. Have been adding serving pieces and also a few Mikasa Italian Countryside pieces as well (not bone china, not sure what it is made of but the lasagne pan, round covered casserole, and egg platter are really lovely). Sturdy and classy, looks good on any table.

My all time favorite is gorham manor. It's bone China, lightweight, bright white, relatively inexpensive, and beautiful. I'm a LOT less upset to break a $5 plate than I am a $30 plate. I got mine at Dillard's.

Porcelain is great but Bone China is better. It's lighter and it's fired at a higher temp. I use Lennox Tin Can Alley my teenage apes, oops I mean sons, have managed to break one plate in 5 years but only one. And it was easily replaced.

I really can't stand earthenware or stoneware. It's always thicker and heavier than porcelain and looks and feels clunky.

We've used Ikea's 365 porcelain for more than a dozen years with no chips and no broken pieces. surfaces stay bright white and glossy. Ikea does change the 365's designs every couple of years or so. That's fine with me, I like to add new pieces that I find especially good looking or practical. I also like mixing them with some white "Oftast" (Ikea's Corelle type ware) and black porcelain dishes and bowls as well as some white Ikea "Stockholm" bone china pieces when we entertain and want a more elegant look.

localeater - I don't think that bone china is necessarily tougher, as it's even thinner than porcelain, which I think makes it more vulnerable to chipping. While I have no chips or broken Stockholm dishes, I'm also more careful with them, and we're not using them daily.

Love that Stockholm "deep plate":

I am not sure where mine was purchased it was so long ago but I am satisfied with it. Mainly I am satisfied with the decision to go with white because then whenever I needed to buy a serving piece or additional piece I knew that if I bought white everything would still match on the table. Originally I recall the decision was hard to make because I really wanted to buy some of the incredibly beautiful sets of china that I see.

I tried the Crate & Barrel Aspen plates, but ended up with Revol plates ($20) because they are flatter. (Just a personal preference, but might not be a good thing for messy eaters). A selling point was that Revol said they're lead-free, so it doesn't bother me if they chip. Fiestaware & Corelle are lead-free too.

Bone china kinda creeps me out.

English China is another word for bone china - maybe that makes you feel better about it... but yeah, it contains bone ash as well. Adhesives and many other products of daily life often contain bone as well. That's a good thing too, the alternatives are petroleum based products that are often toxic to us.

We use white Corelle, except for the mugs which we don't like... So far nothing has broken for us. My kids are 11 and 9 now, but when they started using plates they were much younger, of course. We have had plenty of other broken or chipped dishes / cups / glasses that are not Corelle... Note that we don't have super hard floors (stone / tile), our floors are wood or vinyl, so I don't know what would happen to the Corelle if dropped on stone.

One big factor for me is that the Corelle is so lightweight and stacks compactly, it is easy for the kids to handle, wash etc. So they don't drop them as often. I've had bouts of arthritis and I appreciate that too.

I felt very nostalgic buying Corelle... we used it at grandmother's house, all her dishes were Corelle with very 1970s orange and brown flower patterns... and she bought them with S&H Green Stamps!

smm5525 - I had a similar thread 4 years ago, and ended up with Apilco Beaded Hemstitch. I am as happy with it as the day I purchased it.

We use Ikea Fargrik white dishes for every day. We bought a dinnerware set for 4 place settings. They are stoneware and feel substantial in your hand. (I have arthritis in my hands and haven't had trouble handling these so far!) The price was excellent. We have been using them since our kitchen was completed in 2013. They have held up very well. So far no cutlery marks and I've had only one side plate chip but it was easy to replace since they always carry them in open stock. We really like these dinner plates especially because they are smooth all around and only curve slightly at the edges. We like the larger eating surface!

Fargrik Ikea dinnerware set for 4

These are the separate deep plate/bowls that we bought for pasta, soup and salads. Love them.

Deep plate/bowl to complement the Fargrik set.

We are very happy with them, classic, simple and inexpensive. Fargrik come in a lot of fun colors too so you can mix and match!

I guess you can try the new brand DOWAN, it has a range of white dishes which you can pick and mix to make your own dinnerware set.

A few years back, following advise from GW, I bought Tuxton plates from a restaurant supplies store. I love them! They are simple, and not too heavy. After 5 years of daily use/abuse look brand new, no gray marks. And I can fit a lot of them on my Bosch dishwasher. Only downside is that for some of the sizes you need to buy larger quantities. But the prices are very reasonable and I am glad I have extras when we have parties at home.