Fiesta 4-Piece Dinnerware Place Setting

I loved the way food looked on the black plates, and wanted dishes colorful enough to stand up to my deep red dining room. The dishes had to be tough enough to stand up to the menfolk, be dishwasher friendly and microwave safe. I soon settled on Fiestaware. I loved the assortment of colors and serving pieces and the possibility of mixing and matching colors and pieces. A big plus was the variety of places to order them online, allowing me to avoid the dreaded mall. I did make one trip to a local kitchen store to look over the colors in person, as I know the accuracy of color representation online is iffy.

I ordered 4-piece place settings from Amazon in plum, persimmon, turquoise, sunflower and cinnabar (I'm still waiting on the sunflower). I added a matching boullion cups, the pedestal bowl in plum, serving pieces from the Betty Crocker catalog in juniper, and dinner plates in chartreuse from Ebay. The colors are absolutely scrumptious, and with all those colors I can mix and match to suit my mood, my outfit, the dish I am serving, the weather or any combination of the above. The dishes are attractively designed, and fit well in the dishwasher. The mugs are amazingly comfortable to hold (I wasn't sure they would be), and the cereal bowls are generous in size. There are numerous shapes and kinds of serving dishes to accompany the dinnerware, which will make it hard to stop adding to the collection. And did I mention I love the colors?

Most of the place settings arrived very quickly, with the longest wait for the sunflower. Amazon shipped for free, and the boxes arrived in excellent condition with no breakage, just lots of cardboard to recycle, so no complaints on that. I've been using most of the dishes now for about a month.

Now for the downside, and I'm sorry to say there is one. Apparently Fiestaware has a long history of production flaws. Several of my dishes arrived with glazing flaws such as debris in the glaze, glaze pops and skips. Amazon exchanged quickly and easily, no complaints there, but one of the replacements, the persimmon boullion cup, arrived with an even worse flaw. It looks like Homer Laughlin China needs to do some significant work on their quality control. Others have mentioned that the dark colors show some scratches from use, and unfortunately I have to agree. To date, however, the scratches are not significant enough that I'm overly concerned, after all these dishes get used daily and tossed in the dishwasher.

On the whole, I love these dishes, and am happy with purchase. They were reasonably priced and will offer years of service. If the thought of a few scratches on the plates, or a few pieces with production flaws, concerns you, though, I suggest you consider different dinnerware. I'd give Fiestaware 5 stars if they could clean-up their production act; until then 3 will suffice.

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No question that this was worth waiting for. It is very durable, with no chipping problems. It's heavyweight and beautiful, so even without formal china (and who really uses that anymore?) we can still set a lovely table... Plus it shares one big advantage with formal china--a huge array of matching completer pieces. Even better, you can find it in department stores everywhere. Open stock is readily available, so even if I did manage to break one I could easily replace it.

I also find it fun to constantly see the same dinnerware I use at home on the table in restaurants and in TV shows/commercials.

I bought a special exclusive five piece setting, which is the same as this but with the addition of the fruit bowl. I thought I'd never use it, but that fruit bowl is probably the most used piece! Perfect for a single serving of ice cream (the regular bowls are huge), a boiled egg, snack nuts, etc. There are lots of special pieces like this.

I was concerned that the cereal bowl wouldn't stack and would be a problem to store, but it nests just enough to easily fit a stack of eight in my little cabinets.

Do note: if you want to keep buying matching pieces or think you might need replacements later on, be sure to buy one of the standard colors, not a special limited edition color. Also, at least on my screen, what shows as cobalt here looks NOTHING like the real color. It is actually a very deep, glossy dark blue, which in certain light also has suggestions of purple or even black.

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New Fiesta Ware is made of a vitrifed china which requires a higher firing temperature than the oringal line which was made of semi-vitrified china. Vitrified china appeals to the restaurant industry, a large part of HLC's customer base. (Next time you are in a restaurant, peek under the plate to see the name of the manufacturer - it will probably be HLC!) However, to accomodate shrinkages caused by the higher temperature, mold changes had to be done to the lids and 10.5" plates.

Restaurants use Fiesta Ware and other HLC china because of its durability. I have been using the new Fiesta Ware for every meal, every day for the past 13 years and have only broken a few things. (Thankfully, they usually survive the drop into my cast-iron/enamal sink without a scratch.)

As far as manufacturing flaws are concerned, you will find them. They may included variations in the depth of color or a glazed-over "bump" in the china. (Anyone that has collected older Fiesta Ware will tell you that these same flaws exist in the older pieces as well.) If you are particular, check your product! If you don't like it exchange it. However, I have found flaws to be more uncommon than common, and those that I find are fairly minor and not bothersome.

HLC has added new items to the line, again, mostly for the restaurant trade; however, they are welcome additions to any kitchen. My personal favorite is the 12" rimmed bowl which is great for a big serving of pasta!

Bottom line: In my opinion, this is a wonderfully durable, colorful and fun line of china - enjoy it for a long time!

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