Registry Reviews: Noritake Colorwave

Back in March, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and registered for stuff.  Some of it was cooking, some was housewares, some was boring but necessary (towels.)  I really wished there was some way to find out things about the china that we registered for, and I didn't see many recommendations - most of the stuff I found was "look at how pretty and classic our Vera Wang China is".  That is not helpful.

We were very very fortunate to receive most of what we registered for, including our china.  I'm sharing it here because what we chose to do, particularly with our china, is a little unorthodox but it makes us happy, and it was very hard for me to find information on what kind of china to register for, how it fit in the cabinets, and what type of person it suited. (And a lot of people nowadays register for white china and white china is boring.)

We registered for four different colors of the Noritake Colorwave China.  It's a fairly heavy, dishwasher safe, glazed stoneware and it looks both elegant and whimsical, especially because we got the square.  We find that having different colored plates and bowls can be helpful in knowing whose dish is whose, and livens up the table.

This is our everyday-ware and our fancy-dinner ware, so we were happy to get plates that served both purposes.  As you can see, they are pretty tall (much taller than our old Corelle), but everything stacks together really well, meaning there is very little "wasted" space in our cabinet.  And we finally have enough bowls for both soup and cereal.

I actually love the mugs.  I was so against getting mugs and wanted to just register for open stock, but it cost the same to get the set with the mug and was easier for our guests.  First of all, they are actual mugs, not "teacups", there are no saucers, and they fit a reasonable amount of hot cocoa.  I find myself using these rather than our (large) collection of mugs because I like how they feel in my hand and the inside is a bit easier to clean than some of our mugs.  

The bowls are on the larger side, and they are flatter, which makes them great for things like both soup and cereal.  Our old Corelle bowls were okay for cereal, but too high for soup. Since they are large, they aren't ideal for ice cream, but we actually eat ice cream out of ramekins anyway.  For dinner, we usually use the smaller plates, which are still big enough for a reasonable one-pot type of meal, without a lot of side dishes.  If we're serving a main course and sides, we break out the big plates.  

If you are uptight and want fine china, this is not the set for you.  But if you want nice matching plates that double as fine china and everyday, this is definitely a great set to consider.  They also come in round, and you can get all of the same color if that is how you roll.