Breakfast is the most operationally demanding meal in any hotel. Research on this subject has been ongoing and has shown that 70 percent of leisure travellers and 63 percent of business travellers say breakfast is an important factor in their hotel choice. It’s the meal that will set the tone for the guest’s day, and one of the first quality cues your hotel will give them every morning is the hotel breakfast tableware on that table. Unlike dinner, there are continuous cycles for hotel breakfast from 6 AM to 11 AM. The plates are stacked and fall dozens of times. From juice station to table, table to dishwasher and back. Cutlery is kept in open trays where guests use it without the assistance of a staff member. More volume stress is applied to the tableware of a hotel in a shorter time than in any other service context. Whether you’re looking into the specs of plates and bowls, or the size of glasses, utensils, coffee cups and more, this guide covers all aspects of selecting hotel breakfast tableware that will not only look great, but they’ll work great. Table of Contents Why Hotel Breakfast Tableware Is Different From Other Meals Hotel breakfast tableware operates under conditions that no other meal service in a property replicates. Volume Intensity One breakfast plate may be in the commercial dishwasher at a 200-cover hotel buffet 4-6 times before noon. The same plate is used twice at an à la carte dinner restaurant. The total of the stresses accumulated on the dishes at a hotel the morning of breakfast exceeds the total of the stresses that can be accumulated on the dishes in a restaurant during an entire day’s service. Self-Service Handling In most hotels around the world, at breakfast buffets, guests use tableware without the supervision of the staff. Plates are picked up, carried down the dining room and arranged on anything from carpeted dining rooms to hard poolside terraces. Self-service puts a different set of pressures on the rim, base impact and stacking pressure that a plated dinner service does not. Speed of Rotation Breakfast time is important in a hotel. The core service window is typically 90 minutes, from 7 AM until 8:30 AM, which is when the highest demand is placed on the service, and requires that the table service be constantly rotating. The period of time, during which a plate chips, a juice glass becomes cloudy, or a coffee cup cracks, is a period of service disruptions that is irrecoverable. Guest First Impression Breakfast is the first meal consumed by most hotel guests. The first impression the guest has is the breakfast tableware, and how well they are made, from the weight of the coffee cup to the clarity of the juice glass to the brightness of the plate. The Three Hotel Breakfast Service Formats There are three different types of hotel breakfast, each with a different hotel breakfast tableware specification. Full Breakfast Buffet In mid-scale and upscale hotel properties, the most common format. The stations are available for guests to serve themselves: hot items, cold items, pastries, cereals, fruits and beverages. For hotel breakfasts, the specification is on stability, on the durability of the rims, on the performance of the dishwasher and not on finesse. The basic principle is the 3:1 inventory rule: three times as many pieces should be in rotation as are used during peak demand. Plated Breakfast Service Breakfast is served in the dining room – usually at luxury and boutique hotels. Staff provide service to each guest. Requires a higher specification for plated breakfast: bone china or high-quality porcelain dinnerware, polished stainless steel flatware and crystal glassware. The volume stress is very low and the visual standard is high. Continental and Grab-and-Go A lighter format is likely to be provided in select-service and budget properties. A few items of baked goods, beverages and packaged items. Hotel breakfast tableware for this format focuses on juice glasses, coffee cups and side plates. Quantities are not as high, but durability is the same — commercial dishwasher resistance is a must, no matter the service format. Breakfast Dinnerware: Plates, Bowls and Beyond Breakfast dinnerware is more varied than dinner service, as not only are there more different dinner categories served at one time, but there are also more different pieces of dinnerware. Breakfast Plates Hotel-grade porcelain dinnerware plates with 25 to 28 cm diameter handle most hotel breakfast tableware requirements — large enough for a full cooked breakfast and just the right size for continental service. ISO 9001 and FDA-certified hotel-grade porcelain performs significantly better in continuous commercial dishwasher rotation than retail-grade alternatives. Look for reinforced rim profiles — the weakest point in high-stack breakfast buffets. Side Plates At a breakfast buffet, 20-23cm side plates are used for the toast, pastries and fruit. The same porcelain is used, but the side plates must be of the same batch, as they are the ones that guests will be holding up to the other plates at the buffet line. Cereal and Soup Bowls Deep bowls (15-18cm) for cereals, porridge and yogurt. The wide, shallow bowls are more stable on trays and less likely to tip over during the transport of guests from station to table at a self-service buffet than narrow, deep bowls. Egg Cups and Specialty Pieces Eggs are served as a breakfast treat at many European and Middle Eastern full-service hotel breakfast programs and egg cups in matching porcelain or bone china finish off the breakfast table. Breakfast Flatware: Cutlery for Morning Service Hotel breakfast flatware faces unique challenges compared to dinner service. Cutlery sits in open trays at buffet stations where guests handle dozens of pieces to find what they need. It falls on hard surfaces and flows through the commercial dishwasher multiple times before noon. 18/10 stainless steel flatware is a professional option for flatware for a hotel breakfast. The 18 per cent chromium and 10 per cent nickel content gives it added protection against corrosion, the finish will not change after numerous cycles