This is a new problem for me. My daughter-in-law loves soup (I do too and make some good ones), so I've decided to include it in our Thanksgiving dinners. I was considering doing a brown and white with gold table this time, adding traditional brown-patterned soup bowls/"plates" to our plain white bone china.

A web search turned up Stafford "Asiatic Pheasant" or Spode "Delamere" as nice possibilities even though they're earthenware, but it turns out these two only come in a "cereal/soup" bowl. Besides being that shape, we'd for sure have to do matching underplates for something that small, which would be better for serving and clearing anyway. I'll likely have the tureen on the table.

A quick search hasn't yet turned up something similar in a soup plate that's also fairly affordable, but since I'll be buying bowls anyway, I'd like to get something that'll seem appropriate to all our guests. Which brought me over here for feedback on what those of you who serve soup use. Are cereal bowls definitely "off the table?"

Our white dishes do include hemispheric-shape soup bowls, which though scarcely traditional in look would do for semi-formal extended family, a boring fallback, though. Just give up and use a patterned tablecloth instead? :)