Drew Barrymore’s $23 Walmart dinnerware set made me rethink the sardine trend

Whether you’ve spotted them shaped into a candle, cross-stitched into a pattern or prepared in a pasta dish, sardines are everywhere this summer. Drew Barrymore’s homeware brand Beautiful tapped into this trend with a 12-piece dinnerware set featuring three little sardines as its main characters. You get four cereal bowls and four dinner and salad plates all for under $25.

Walmart

Sardines are the last fish I would eat at a summer cookout, which is why I am excited to see the trending food only as a pattern on my dish. These preppy plates and bowls are as practical as they are stylish.

✓ Design: It’s made from bamboo melamine, a durable material I prioritize for outdoor dinnerware, so you can plate these dishes indoors or out. If you are a frequent camper like me, you could even use this set as your go-to for campground meals. They’re lightweight to carry on a tray or pack away in a bag. The plates and bowls are also dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning, but they are not microwave-safe.

✓ Style: Taking a closer look at the dishes, you’ll notice that each has its own pattern. The dinner plate has a green-and-sky-blue rim with a wavy navy-blue border and “Le Tre Sardine” in the center (“The Three Sardines” in Italian). Meanwhile, the salad plate leans even more preppy with a green checkered print and three cute sardines in the center. To tie it all together, the cereal bowls replicate the same rim as the dinner plates, but with “Le Jardin” (“The Garden” in French) written on the inside.

✓ What shoppers are saying: “So cute and whimsical,” shares one smitten shopper. “I have used them for soups, salmon bowls, pasta, cereal, yogurt parfaits, and more. I like that they are not tiny and I get a good meal-sized bowl of whatever dinner is that night,” adds one home chef. Another happy owner reports: “So far there’s no staining or scratches even after multiple uses.”

Whether displayed on a dining room table or a picnic table, the melamine dinnerware set by Drew Barrymore evokes a Mediterranean summer table, where even sardines feel cool and definitely not like something that grosses me out. Walmart is also selling an assortment of matching serving pieces and summery decor, from table linens to tumblers, that are worth scooping up before the season ends.