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See why.The Best Disposable Plates
We tested eight nationally available, top-selling disposable plates made from a variety of materials.
Last Updated May 3, 2023. Appears in Cook's Country June/July 2009, Cook's Country TV Season 11: Ballpark Classics
Our favorite disposable plates are now marketed under a different name. They are now called the Hefty ECOSAVE Compostable 10-1/8 inch Plates; the product itself has not changed.
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See Everything We Tested
What You Need To Know
Barbecue sauce drips over the edge of your plate and straight onto your neighbor’s shoes. Pizza grease soaks through onto your favorite party pants. A loaded picnic plate suddenly collapses. Most of us have fallen victim to a floppy, soggy disposable plate at one time or another. While disposable plates are a convenient choice for parties, barbecues, or nights when you simply don’t feel like doing the dishes, quality counts.
Our longtime favorite disposable plates by Vanity Fair were recently redesigned, so we decided to revisit the category. We stocked up on eight nationally available, top-selling products priced from roughly $0.10 to $0.55 per plate. Most of the plates we found come in multiple sizes; we opted for plates around 10 inches wide—roughly the size of a normal dinner plate.
We put these plates to the test by saddling them with more food than anyone would probably (hopefully) eat in one sitting—a full 2 pounds of picnic favorites including bone-in chicken breast, piping-hot baked beans, coleslaw, and potato salad. With a plastic fork in one hand and a loaded plate in the other, we walked a loop around the busy test kitchen to simulate mingling at a barbecue or party, occasionally poking a fork into the food as if we were eating. Half the plates buckled, sagged, or cracked from the get-go, either from the weight of the food or the stress of the fork. But things really took a nosedive when we repeated the test after letting food sit on the plates for 5 minutes: Some plates practically bent in half as we held them, sending baked beans and coleslaw sliding toward the floor. Only a handful of plates held strong, maintaining their rigid, flat surface.
The plates that performed best in this test appeared to have thicker bottoms than the floppier, lower-ranked plates, so we cut the plates in half and used calipers to measure the thickness of each product’s eating surface. Top-ranked plates were more than twice as thick as poor-performing products—0.7 millimeter compared to 0.3 millimeter—which explained why these plates held steady while others flopped. A thicker bottom also helped prevent grease and liquid from soaking through onto our clothes. We observed as much when we let each plate sit loaded with pepperoni pizza for 10 minutes: The undersides of the thinnest plates were saturated with grease, while top performers still looked as good as new.
But a thicker plate wasn’t always better. Two of the thickest and sturdiest plates tore and melted when we cut chicken or reheated pizza in the microwave on them. Both were made from polystyrene, a plastic that can be either hard or flexible. The flexible polystyrene plate was...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Sturdiness: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
These plates, which are made from pulped and pressed sugarcane husks, were the roomiest of the bunch, with an 8-inch eating surface and a steep lip to keep food from crowding or spilling over. Thanks to their thick bottoms, they were impervious to pizza grease, had no trouble holding up 2 pounds of food, and didn’t budge when prodded with a fork or knife (though testers noticed a tiny bit of floppiness after food sat for 5 minutes, food was still safely contained).
Recommended
- Sturdiness: 2 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
From afar, these plates look identical to our winning plates and performed nearly as admirably, containing 2 pounds of picnic fare with ease during a loop around the kitchen. Though testers noticed some slouching (slightly more than we saw in our winner) after we let food sit for 5 minutes, these plates were relatively roomy, contained all the food, and kept pizza grease at bay.
- Sturdiness: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Though slightly thinner than other top products, these plates held piles of food sturdily, with only minor buckling in spots where we pressed with a fork. There were no grease stains when we loaded them with pizza and nary a mark when we cut chicken with steak knives. Some testers thought that the eating surface was a little too cramped when loaded with food.
Recommended with reservations
- Sturdiness: 3 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 1.5 stars out of 3.
Testers thought that these clear plastic plates, which were thick enough to hold 2 pounds of food without budging, could almost pass for real dishware. That is, until we watched them warp and melt as we reheated pizza in the microwave (although the package doesn’t say whether or not the plates can be microwaved, the Chinet website says they should not). Some testers also took issue with their small eating surface and gently sloped edges, which occasionally sent runny foods like baked beans onto the floor.
- Sturdiness: 2 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 2 stars out of 3.
While these foam plates were sturdy and thick, with tall sides to contain food, their edges sometimes cracked when the plates were fully loaded (though no food fell to the floor), and a few cuts with a butter knife easily punctured their bottoms. These plates also aren’t microwave-safe (their packaging vaguely states ”limited microwave use”)—holes melted in the foam after just a minute in the microwave.
- Sturdiness: 1 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
We had high hopes for these plates, which are the redesigned version of our former winner. Initial results seemed promising: The plates were unblemished by cuts from a steak knife, repelled pizza grease, and held strong during our first loop around the kitchen. But as soon as we pressed a fork into the food, the plates sagged and flopped in our hands. Worse, when we picked them up after letting food sit for 5 minutes, the plates collapsed in on themselves, sending baked beans and coleslaw sliding over the edge.
Not Recommended
- Sturdiness: 1 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 1 stars out of 3.
Flimsy and thin, these plates tipped precariously when loaded with food and nearly collapsed with the touch of a fork. The weak, pliable ridges on the outer rim of the plate stressed and pulled apart as we held the plate, creating fragile spots where sauce and liquid seeped in and sogged out the plate. These plates were also no match for pizza grease, which soaked right through.
- Sturdiness: 1 stars out of 3.
- Containment: 1 stars out of 3.
The cheaper, thinner option by Dixie, this product was a disaster from the get-go: Chicken and baked beans caused the plate to sag and threatened to topple over the sides; pizza grease sogged out the bottom; and the tiniest poke from a fork practically collapsed the whole thing. After 5 minutes of holding food, these paper plates bent in half when we picked them up, sending food falling to the ground.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
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