Dish It Out: Review of Melissa & Doug's Let's Play House Pretend Dishes Toy

I sometimes try to buy toys that imitate real life. We aren’t trying to be or do Montessori or anything, but Froot Loop enjoys toys that sort of imitate life. I bought him these so he can have his own set of play dishes to use and wash.

This set of Dishes is just great for him to play with. It’s a 24 piece set that includes 4 full place settings of cups, plates, forks, spoons, and knives in red, blue, green, and yellow. It also has a squeezable soap bottle, mesh sponge, and metal drying rack with plastic utensil insert. 

Froot Loop loves to use these plates and utensils for his different play sets. He often serves up the Melissa and Doug pancakes or waffles on them. He uses them in his play kitchen fairly often. They are the perfect size for the Melissa and Doug play food sets as well as other play food. 

He has also grabbed them a few times to use for his snacks. I try to discourage that though since our house is not the cleanest all the time. The dishes are dishwasher safe and BPA free though at least. I love toys that are easy to clean!

We’ve brought this set into the bathtub many times so he can practice washing dishes. He has no desire to actually help me with washing dishes yet, but that’s okay. There’s lots of time for that. 

When we first got the set, I would ask him to bring me specific colors of the pieces. Then, I’d ask him to just give me all the yellow ones (or blue or green or red). He often worked on matching them. He would set the places up so each person had only one color. He tries to do this with my Fiestaware too.

I also have taught him how to set a table with this set. It’s something we’re still working on, but it’s a start. 

The dish strainer is a pretty cool too. It’s a solid metal (believe me, it HURTS. I’ve stepped on it and tripped over it more than once). It stores perfectly in the bottom shelf of the Melissa and Doug kitchen we have. 

So, this is a fun toy to have around. I’m very glad we have it. It doesn’t get everyday use, but it gets played with often enough. 

What kind of dishes do you have?