Stoneware, Glass or Wood? A Guide to the Best Serving Bowls

Family-style is how a Mexican table eats. A big bowl of guacamole goes in the middle with the chips, a bowl of ensalada de nopales or a green salad beside it, rice and frijoles charros in their own bowls, and on a cold night a pot of pozole ladled into bowls at the table. In a restaurant the serving bowls take the most abuse of anything on the line: hot, cold, acidic, wet, in and out of the dishwasher all night. At home they need to do the same jobs, only less often.

A good serving bowl is big enough for the crowd you feed, made of something that suits the food (hot, cold or acidic), and easy to wash. This guide names nine worth buying, in lead-free stoneware, vitrified ceramic, glass, acacia wood and melamine, from Juliska, Pfaltzgraff, Fiesta, Emile Henry, Anchor Hocking, Godinger, Libbey, Lipper International and TarHong.

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Quick verdict: which serving bowl to buy

Five serving bowls side by side

Our five standout serving bowls, one for each kind of table. All nine are reviewed in full below.

Product images from Amazon. Materials, capacities, lead and glaze statements and care are as given by each maker or listing.

Our picks for the best serving bowls

These nine cover four materials. Glazed ceramic (Juliska, Pfaltzgraff, Fiesta, Emile Henry) is the everyday choice for hot and cold food, and every one of these makers makes a statement about lead. Glass (Anchor Hocking, Godinger, Libbey) shows off layered and colorful food. Acacia wood (Lipper) is for dry and dressed salads, and melamine (TarHong) is for outdoors. Each pick lists its size and capacity, the number of pieces, what the maker says about the glaze or material, and how to wash it.

How to choose a serving bowl

Size for your table. As a rough guide, a 2-quart bowl serves a side for four to six, a 3- to 4-quart bowl serves a main salad or a side for eight to ten, and anything over 5 quarts is for a party. Check capacity, not just diameter; a 13-inch shallow bowl and a 9-inch deep one can hold about the same.

Shape for the food. Wide, shallow bowls are best for salads and dishes people serve themselves from. Deep bowls are best for soup, pozole, beans in their broth and anything you toss. Footed and tall glass bowls are for show.

Material for the temperature. Glazed stoneware and ceramic take hot and cold food and usually the microwave. Glass is best for cold food and layered dishes. Wood is for salads, fruit and chips, and Lipper says its bowl should not go in the refrigerator. Melamine is for outdoors and cold food, never the microwave.

For glazed ceramic, check the maker’s lead statement. Glazes are where lead can turn up in tableware, especially with acidic food like salsa, lime and vinegar. We only recommend glazed bowls whose maker makes a statement about lead: Juliska and Fiesta say “lead-free,” Emile Henry says its products contain no lead, cadmium or nickel, and Pfaltzgraff says its products meet federal lead standards. Several well-known bowls had no statement at all, so they are not here.

Care. If it does not go in the dishwasher, be honest about whether you will hand wash it. Of these nine, the Juliska, Pfaltzgraff, Fiesta, Emile Henry, Godinger and TarHong bowls and the Anchor Hocking glass go in the dishwasher; the Libbey trifle bowl and the Lipper wood bowl do not.

One set or one of each. A nesting set like the Pfaltzgraff covers rice, beans and salsa in matching bowls. Mixing materials, one big ceramic, one glass, one wood, gives you the right bowl for each kind of food.

Guacamole, pozole and ensalada: the right bowl for each

A few Mexican dishes make specific demands of a serving bowl.

• Guacamole browns where air reaches it, so a bowl that is deeper than it is wide keeps more of it green; press plastic wrap onto the surface if it has to wait. Many cooks serve it straight from the molcajete it was mashed in, and a chip and dip bowl puts the chips and guacamole in one piece.
• Pozole and caldos need a deep, heat-tolerant bowl. Serve from the pot at the table or from a deep ceramic bowl like the Emile Henry, with the garnishes (shredded cabbage, radish, oregano, lime, chile) in small bowls around it.
• Ensaladas with lime and vinegar dressings are acidic; ceramic with a lead statement, glass or wood are all good choices. Toss in a deep bowl and serve from a wide one if you have both.
• Rice and beans want two matching mid-size bowls that hold heat; stoneware does that well.

For prep before anything reaches the table, our guide to the best mixing bowls covers the bowls behind the scenes. Setting a buffet? The taco bar supplies guide covers the rest, and Mexican food for a group explains how much to make.

How we picked these nine serving bowls

We looked at large serving bowls and sets from Le Creuset, Pfaltzgraff, Sango, Mikasa, Gibson, Juliska, Fiesta, Emile Henry, Corelle, Libbey, Anchor Hocking, Godinger, Totally Bamboo, Lipper International, TarHong and others, and kept only those showing as in stock on Amazon when we checked. Specifications come from the Amazon listings. Lead statements come from the listings for Juliska, Fiesta, Godinger and TarHong, from Emile Henry’s US website, and from Pfaltzgraff’s general FAQ.

Several familiar names are missing because of the glaze rule. Le Creuset’s stoneware bowls are in stock, but we did not find a lead-free statement from Le Creuset for them. Mikasa’s bone china and stoneware bowls, Sango’s Resona bowls and Gibson’s porcelain bowls had no lead statement in their listings, so we left them out; this is a gap in what the makers state, not a finding about the bowls. Totally Bamboo’s serving bowls all showed limited stock. We did not read Wirecutter, America’s Test Kitchen or Serious Eats coverage of serving bowls for this guide, and we have not used these bowls ourselves.

Serving bowl questions, answered

What are the best quality serving bowls?

Well-made glazed stoneware or ceramic from a maker that states its lead policy, such as Juliska, Fiesta or Emile Henry. They take hot and cold food, the dishwasher and usually the oven.

What are the best serving bowls brands?

For ceramic, Juliska, Fiesta, Emile Henry and Pfaltzgraff; for glass, Anchor Hocking, Libbey and Godinger; for melamine, TarHong; for wood, Lipper International.

What size serving bowl do I need?

About 2 quarts for a side for four to six, 3 to 4 quarts for a main salad or a side for eight to ten, and 5 quarts or more for a party.

Are serving bowls microwave and dishwasher safe?

Many ceramic ones are: Juliska, Pfaltzgraff, Fiesta and Emile Henry list both. Melamine goes in the dishwasher but not the microwave. Wood goes in neither.

What is the best kitchen serving bowl for everyday use?

A mid-size ceramic bowl that goes in the microwave and dishwasher, like the Fiesta Bistro Coupe or the large Pfaltzgraff Trellis bowl.

Are ceramic serving bowls safe for acidic food?

Look for a maker’s statement about lead in the glaze. Juliska and Fiesta state their ceramics are lead-free and Emile Henry says its products contain no lead; we did not recommend glazed bowls without such a statement.

The serving bowls to start with

Serving pasta? See our guide to the best pasta bowls.

Related guide: Best gravy boat.

Related guide: Best napkin holder.

Related guide: Best fruit bowl.

Buy the Juliska 13-inch bowl if you want one large bowl that does everything, the Pfaltzgraff Trellis set if you want three matching sizes, or a Fiesta bowl or two for color. Add a glass bowl with a lid for make-ahead salads and a melamine one for the patio, and you have a bowl for everything on a Mexican table. For the plates that go with them, see our guide to the best dinnerware sets. If you would rather we fill the bowls, see the menu or call to order.