Your Plates Are Talking to Your Customers

Before a guest tastes anything, they've already picked up the fork. Its weight, its balance and the way it catches the light all tell them something about the meal to come.

Tableware is one of the most handled parts of any restaurant, yet it's often an afterthought. It's tempting to stock up from a high street homeware store: the plates look fine on the shelf and the price is hard to argue with. But domestic ranges are made for a family dinner, not three services a day.

In a commercial kitchen, plates are stacked, carried, knocked and put through a hot dishwasher dozens of times a week. Domestic crockery chips at the rim, cutlery dulls and marks, and within a year the table looks tired. Worse, the range may be discontinued, leaving you with mismatched sets.

Commercial tableware is built for this life. Look for vitrified porcelain with reinforced, chip-resistant rims, and good-quality 18/10 stainless steel cutlery with a satisfying weight in the hand. Choose a supplier who keeps lines in stock for years, so a broken plate can be replaced with one that matches.

It costs more at the start, but it lasts far longer, so the cost per use is often lower. And the payoff isn't only practical. Good tableware makes food look better and makes your prices feel fair.

Your plates are part of your interior. Choose them as carefully as your chairs, and if you'd like a hand, we're always happy to talk tableware.

Pictured: a dish served at Rasa, Stepaside, an Inside Up project.