5 Best Kitchen Towels for Every Mess
Whether you’re a professional chef, frequent baker or often tasked with drying the dishes after dinner, kitchen towels are a cleanup necessity. A good kitchen towel is made of an absorbent material that also dries fast post-use and, let’s be honest, looks nice hanging on a hook or over your oven door handle. But it’s hard to discern the good from the bag when shopping online. That’s why our pros tested 13 styles to find the best kitchen towels.
Experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab put top-ranking towels from brands like Williams Sonoma and All-Clad to the test in the Textiles Lab and in our Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab and Hearst Lifestyle Group Test Kitchen. We drew from previous experience testing bath towels and beach towels and relied on our kitchen pros’ experiences to report on absorbency, size and style. When all was said and dried, these kitchen towels came out on top.
List of Contents
1. Best overall kitchen towels
Our contributing kitchen analyst was a fan of these towels before we even tested them in the Lab. The multi-pack lived up to its name of “super absorbent,” ranking second best in our absorbency tests. We ranked them number five out of 13 for drying speed. Testers across the board highlighted the pretty stripes and plaid although some wished the pattern was on the inside as well. The same tester who owns a set found they wash well and said the towels are on the larger side. While they may not fit in a small apron pocket, the large size is ideal for hanging over your oven’s door handle and tackling big dishes like a lasagna pan.
2. Best value kitchen towels
It’s the best of both worlds when performance and affordability align in testing. These cotton terry towels are just $6 for a set of two and received the best overall absorbency score. While the towels didn’t rank as high in our drying tests, our kitchen Lab pros loved the striped design and found the towels still dried dishes well. Other highlights include a super soft feel and waffle-like underside but note that these kitchen towels are on the smaller side. The towels also have a 4.7-star rating across 1,000 Target shopper reviews, so it’s safe to say we aren’t the only ones who appreciate this two-pack.
3. Best patterned kitchen towel
As you may have noted from previous picks, experts in the Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab and Test Kitchen almost always commented on the design of each towel. The brand Geometry surpassed other patterned picks since you can choose from almost 100 colorful styles! It had the quickest drying time of all 13 towels we tested. Testers also found the towel soft, especially after washing it. One analyst particularly appreciated the “very pretty patterns that remained just as vibrant after washing.” She enjoyed using the tea towel for cleaning around her coffee machine while another tester appreciated its large size.
