Dinnerware Plates

A vitrified body has been fired until it is effectively non-porous, so it does not soak up water, does not craze and does not stain through a chip. It is the single biggest predictor of how long a plate lasts in a commercial wash-up.

Non-vitrified crockery can look identical and will start showing fine cracks and grey staining within months. Check the body description on the product page specifications.

Plan on covering your busiest service plus whatever is in the wash, plus a working spare stack. A set sized exactly to covers means you are washing plates mid-service, and plates washed in a hurry are plates that get broken.

Order a replacement allowance at the same time, from the same production run. Colour and glaze shift between runs, and a mismatched plate is as good as broken.

The rim, in the wash-up and the plate stack. Very little crockery is broken by a customer; most of it is chipped by another plate during stacking and then finished off in a rack.

Lower stack heights, use the right racks and keep the stack off the edge of the bench. The dishwashing accessories range has the dividers and racks.

Rimmed plates give staff somewhere to hold and frame the food, which suits classic plating and hot plates. Coupe plates — no rim, a gentle curve — give more usable surface for the same diameter and read as more modern.

Coupe plates hold sauce less well at the edge and are harder to carry hot. Pick by menu rather than fashion.

A main plate, an entree plate, a side plate and one share platter covers most menus. Each additional size is a storage problem and another choice for staff to get wrong under pressure.

Plate your real dishes on samples before deciding. Portion looks small on a plate that is too large, and a plate too small limits the kitchen forever.

Plain ceramic plates can be, and a warm plate is the cheapest improvement available to hot food service. The limits are decoration, which can be damaged, and metallic banding, which should not go anywhere near a microwave.

Use a heated shelf, a plate warmer or a low holding cabinet rather than the top of a grill, which heats unevenly and cracks plates.

In short, even stacks on a stable shelf, by size. Tall mixed stacks are where the chipping happens, and a stack that has to be lifted off a high shelf is a breakage waiting for a busy night.

Store the service stack at the pass and the rest away from the line. Modular shelving and kitchen wall shelves cover both.

For functions, outdoor service, poolside, aged care and anywhere breakage or weight dominates, yes. It will not chip and a full stack is far lighter to carry.

It does not hold heat and will scratch visibly over time. The buffet and table service and plastic kitchen accessories ranges cover it.

By glaze and body first, shape second. Two whites from different makers rarely read as the same white on a table, and the difference is more obvious under warm lighting than on a shelf.

Send through what you already run and we will check what matches. The body and glaze are stated on each product page, so the price guide is a quick way to shortlist before samples.

Crockery plates, tableware plates, dinner plates, service plates and commercial china all describe the same range. The useful distinctions are body type, rim style and shape rather than the label.

Compare by those three. The round plates, oval plates and square plates pages cover each shape in detail.