The viral Instagram reel that made us want plates that look like bowls (and vice versa)

Where were you the day of the great plate bowls debate on Instagram?

Whether you call them platey-bowls, plowls, blates, or (ahem) pasta dishes, it seems everyone has an opinion on the not-so-humble plate bowls. Some, of course, have them pegged as the very best kitchen idea yet, while others are... 

Well, while others are asking why they can't just stick to their tried-and-tested dinner plates, thank you very much. 

The plate bowls debate on Instagram

The plate bowls debate kicked off when @meganwelldone shared her now-viral video to Instagram Reels.

The footage – which featured a woman handling a dish with a wide surface area (like a plate), but raised edges (like a bowl) – featured a truly iconic voiceover: 'We're all just women who want to find bowls that sort of look like plates that are sort of like bowls.'

It has since been viewed some 4,920,597 times, and has seen plowls go rocketing to the top of our list of must-try kitchen trends, too.

More importantly, though, it has triggered a truly compelling plate bowls debate among its most impassioned fans (and haters, too).

'Every time I think I’m a unique little quirk, a video like this one pops up,' reads one of the comments under the original post.

'What's wrong with a normal bowl?' demands another, proving there is no such thing as a non-divisive topic on social media.

Shop the plate bowls trend:

Whichever side of the plate bowls debate you fall upon, it's worth noting that it has well and truly confounded more than one Italian on social media.

Take, for instance, lifestyle and travel writer Alessia Armenise, who pens missives about her hometown in Southern Italy via The Toe newsletter on Substack.

Alessia Armenise

Born and raised in Southern Italy, Alessia is a talented trilingual writer and editor, as well as an expert in all things lifestyle and travel-related. To learn more from her, you can subscribe to her newsletter, The Toe, read her webzine, Pretty Slow Life, or listen to her podcast, Pretty Good Business.

'This is nothing new, so I am surprised it's even a trend,' says Alessia.

'In Italy, this type of plate is called a piatto fondo, which is used for Italian first courses like pasta, as well as soups like minestrone.'

Alessia adds: 'Every household uses piatti fondi as much as what I suppose are considered "normal" plates – which for us are piatti piani. As far as I'm aware, IKEA has been selling them since forever, too!'

Consider us told, quite frankly. 

'Despite a big stack of dinner plates in the drawer, my family are definitely more fans of the "platey bowl", as it's known in our house,' says Ideal Home's editor, Heather Young. 

'I know, officially, they're pasta bowls, but they work for pretty much every meal. It's hard to pin down exactly what I prefer about eating off a platey bowl instead of a plate – I feel like the food just looks better on them.'

Heather adds: 'I'm also a big fan of sauce, so maybe it's to do with keeping the sauce from spreading too far out!'

Anyone else suddenly tempted to splash out on an extra-special piatto fondo, like the unique hand-painted plate bowl above by famed ceramicists Ceramiche Nicola Fasano, aka the Grace Sisters? 

We honestly can't wait to swill our sauce around in it and start dropping Italian terms over dinner...