Kito 16-Piece Stoneware Dinner Set Review

I am completely at a loss as to what section to put this post under. In the end I plumped for Fashion due to the unnecessary need for ornamental crockery. Personally I believe matching crockery is a hell designed for +Christmas dinner and other such over the top occasions. The rest of the year we are all happy to munch from our chipped mismatched plates, and I'm sure many of us fondly remember our childhood individual plates from the culmination of remaining sets. For those that don't; you lived a especially charmed abnormal life, and likely played Polo.
In choosing my future cracked set of plates I caved to The Controllers  constant demands for square plates. Square plates have always seemed like they belonged in a pretentious hotel serving up a tiny artistic remnants of food. However he has been asking for nearly a decade, so I guess it was about time I bowed to the man of the house.




My choices were drastically influenced by the 'buy one get one half price' and additional sale prices of +Very.co.uk. The bright and colourful Kito range from Swan caught my eye. I went for the curved corners on my 'square' plates, as I felt they gave a less harsh professional look, and seemed more family friendly. The crazy price of £37 for 8 place settings seemed a lot more than the last time we purchased a dinner set, but the mix and match colour scheme offset my complaining (sort of!). I was gutted that the Hawaiian Blue was out of stock, the same shade as the walls, it really was perfect for my kitchen colour. The black and white were the obvious next choice.

Layered up they look suitably attractive, and I can guarantee they will look very swish at decorating the Christmas table. I personally feel the jaunty angle of the side plate freshens up the display no end!
As remarked upon in other reviews, some of my plates did have tiny blemishes/ chips. Primarily on the edges of the larger plates, almost as though the glaze hasn't fully covered the plate. I didn't feel this was enough of a reason to be worth the hassle of returning, at least they're saving you the wait for the 'well-loved' chips and scratches to appear.

The dinner plates are rather large at 28cm in diameter, so make sure they are suitable before purchase as I've seen a few complaints of them being to big for microwaves. I found them smaller than my previous ones (they actually fit inside my cupboard now), although they were a tight fit for the draining rack. Stretching my poor draining rack to the level of dangerous potential smashing.
The side plates are 18cm diameter and the bowls 21.5cm diameter with 7cm depth (important knowledge for cereal measuring!).The cups are square based with the standard round lip and they stand at 11cm, they hold just over 8ozs of liquid (a decent cuppa!).
I feel these stand out as decorative pieces, and feel weighty enough to endure the trials of small children and clumsy adults. This is not a guarantee of longevity, indeed by Christmas this set is likely to have suffered fallen comrades. Secretly I'm hoping that the gorgeous Hawaiian Blue comes back into stock so I can supplement the stockpile of required crockery!


Edit: Christmas has now been and gone, as has a few of the plates. Four small plates and two large one's have been 'recycled' into pot drainage for plants.
The most epic one cracked into two in my hands while I was drying it. To be forever remembered as Batman: The Dark Knight Cracks.