The Best Kitchen Towels

We’ve covered kitchen towels at Wirecutter since 2014. Over the course of that time, we’ve spent almost 100 hours researching hundreds of towels, and tested 25.

Lesley Stockton spent her whole professional life cooking in restaurants, catering, and in test kitchens, so she knows her way around a dish rag. In addition to her practical experience in the kitchen, she’s covered table linens for Wirecutter for the past three years. And though she wouldn’t use a dinner napkin to dry dishes, some of her research on table linens is applicable for kitchen towels.

Haley Sprankle, who conducted testing in 2019, is an updates writer for Wirecutter. She’s also covered oven mitts and pot holders for Wirecutter.

When researching this guide, we scoured the Internet for reputable editorial guides from sources like Cook’s Illustrated (subscription required), and we read hundreds of user reviews. We also read Wirecutter’s own guide to bath towels, which has a wealth of information on terry cloth. We went to kitchen and home stores to feel towels, see the available colors, and talk with salespeople. We also talked to Wirecutter deputy editor Christine Cyr Clisset, who has covered home textiles, and Tux Loerzel, store manager at Whisk, a kitchenwares store in Brooklyn, New York.

Everyone needs absorbent kitchen towels. You can use them to dry your hands and dishes, to wipe up spills, or for handling hot pans. Whether you’re equipping your first kitchen or replacing worn-out or stained dishcloths, new kitchen towels made from 100 percent cotton are a small way to upgrade your everyday. No matter if you want a towel that matches your kitchen’s color scheme, an absorbent mop for spills and dirty jobs, or an oversized thinner cloth for food prep tasks, one of our picks is likely to meet your needs.

If you’re not sure what you need in terms of a kitchen towel, here’s a list of the types we review in this guide:

Cotton terry cloth: Terry cloth has raised loops that are great at grabbing and holding moisture. It’s highly absorbent, inexpensive, and ideal for drying dishes and hands or wiping up spills. New terry cloth towels will deposit some lint on glassware, depending on quality. But they’ll produce less lint after four or five wash and dry cycles.

Waffle weave: The term for these towels is derived from their waffle-like woven grid pattern. Waffle-weave towels are commonly made from cotton or microfiber, and touted for being absorbent and quick-drying.

Flat-weave cotton: These towels have a smooth weave without any raised loops or stitches. They’re slightly less thirsty than terry cloth, but relatively lint-free from the outset. The smooth texture has a clean look, and lends itself to decorative printing or patterns.

Cotton huck towels: Huck towels are a mainstay in hospitals for drying surgical instruments after sterilization, because they’re absorbent and lint-free. But they’re also thinner and smaller—and in turn more limiting— than standard kitchen towels. Bloggers have popularized the use of huck towels in the kitchen because they’re cheap and a reusable substitute for paper towels.

Flour sack towels: These towels are thin, low-lint, and can measure up to 50 percent bigger than standard 20-by-30-inch kitchen towels. They’re less absorbent per square inch, but make up for this deficiency with more surface area. Flour sack towels are also useful for food prep, like covering rising dough and gently drying tender herbs and berries.

Their practicality doesn’t end in the kitchen. Fellow Wirecutter staff writer Michael Sullivan uses flour sack towels for dusting because, “they’re extremely soft and won’t scratch wood surfaces. And since they’re so thin, you can use the edges to get into hard-to-reach crevices of ornate furniture.”

For this guide, we focused on all-purpose towels that can take a beating in the kitchen and hold up to frequent wash cycles. We immediately ruled out microfiber cloths because they hold smells and aren’t as durable as cotton towels. Thick-weave linen towels are absorbent and lintless, but they’re also very expensive, so we decided not to test those. Based on past personal experience, we skipped cotton basket-weave towels because of their lack of absorbency. We’ve also tested a few blue-stripe herringbone-weave towels before, but they never compete with higher-quality brands.

When it comes to quickly drying dishes, hands, and produce, or even handling hot pans and casseroles, nothing is as versatile as a thick cotton towel. Cotton is durable, affordable, and absorbent, which is why Tux Loerzel, of the kitchenwares store Whisk in Brooklyn, told us that he recommends cotton to most people. Cotton towels are also heat-resistant, making them great as pot holders when folded over a couple times. Loerzel said that at home, “I have oven mitts and pot holders … but the towel is hanging off the oven so I generally will reach for that nine times out of ten.” (Pro tip: Never handle a hot item with a damp towel, because water transfers heat much better than fabric, and will quickly burn your hand) But not all cotton towels are the same, and their performance varies with thickness, size, and the type of weave. Listed below are the criteria we believe are most important when selecting a kitchen towel:

Durability
A strong weave and durable stitching will keep your kitchen linens looking like new through multiple wash cycles. Because kitchen towels are exposed to bacteria from your hands, cutting board, and food, they need regular laundering (ideally, multiple times a week, depending on use). Cotton is generally very durable and will hold up against the rigors of your washer and dryer. But towels made from high-quality long cotton fibers will last longer than those constructed from cheap cotton.

Size and shrinkage
Most all-purpose cotton kitchen towels seem to hover around 20 by 30 inches, give or take. For thicker fabrics, like terry cloth, this is ideal. It’s large enough to dry a full draining rack of dishes, and provide protection from hot pots and casseroles when triple-folded. There are two exceptions to this general size rule: flour sack towels and bar mops. Thinner flour sack towels can run up to 33 by 38 inches, and that extra area makes up for their lack of absorbency per square inch. Inexpensive terry cloth bar mops are smaller, measuring around 16 by 19 inches, but these thirsty towels are efficient at wiping up spills.

All cotton towels will shrink after washing and drying. The rate of shrinkage with the towels we tested ranged from 11 to 25 percent, and our picks fell in the 11 to 18 percent range. But even the towels that shrank by 18 percent were still a generous size.

Attractiveness
Even though kitchen towels are practical items, nobody wants a tattered rag hanging in their kitchen. Plain, plush fabric sewn with clean hems is attractive by virtue of its construction, but we also understand that kitchen textiles are a big part of people’s kitchen decor. We kept aesthetics in mind by choosing towels available in multiple textures and colors, and gave preference to sets available in white because it’s the most neutral color.

Before we mopped up a single spill, we washed and dried each towel 10 times. This served two purposes: to test the towel’s durability through multiple launderings and to remove the industrial coating (called sizing) that protects the fabric during shipping and storage (but also inhibits absorption). After the wash test, we eliminated kitchen towels with loose threads and frayed hems.

To test absorbency, we laid each towel over ½ cup of spilled black tea or water for 30 seconds, then checked for any unabsorbed liquid. As we predicted, the thinner towels absorbed less per square inch than thicker ones.

We also dried water glasses to check for lint. But after 10 wash and dry cycles, most of the kitchen towels were virtually lint free.

Williams Sonoma All Purpose Pantry Towels offer the best combination of absorbency, durability, attractiveness, and price of all the towels we tested. With thirsty terry cloth on one side and waffle weave cotton on the other, this low-lint towel quickly dries dishes, hands, and surfaces, and is attractive enough to hang in plain sight. It’s available in eight colors and the four-pack price averages out to $5 per towel.

This dense cotton kitchen towel combines two different textures on opposite sides: terry cloth and waffle weave. Though the terry weave is flatter and less plush than that of other terry towels, it absorbs moisture as well as any fluffier cloth we tested. It dries dishes and glassware without depositing lint, and is thirsty enough to tackle a draining rack full of dishes after dinner. Though the Williams Sonoma towel is tough and absorbent, the smoother waffle side also excels at delicate tasks, like de-fuzzing strawberries and blotting water from tender produce.

We’ve used and abused the Williams Sonoma towels in our test kitchen since 2016, and the seams and stitching are still completely intact with no signs of wear. And to say we’re hard on our kitchen towels is an understatement. We deploy them for every spill, from coffee and tea, to red wine and red meat drippings. To remove tough stains, we soak our towels in hot water and oxygenated bleach before running them through the washer and dryer.

We also think Williams Sonoma’s towel is attractive. The terry cloth loops are small and tightly packed—unlike bathroom hand towels—and waffle weave has a smooth and hygienic look that’s befitting for the kitchen. And it has a sewn-in corner loop so you can conveniently hang your towel from a hook or drawer pull. If white isn’t your style, the All-Purpose Pantry towel is available in seven other colors.

Long-term testing notes

We use the Williams Sonoma All-Purpose Pantry Towel in the Wirecutter test kitchen every day. After several years of abuse (we’re not easy on our kitchen rags) and countless washes in extra-hot water, they show no sign of unraveling at the hem or worn holes in the weave. (though they have picked up some stains). Several members of Wirecutter’s kitchen team also use the Pantry Towels at home, and so far we haven’t had any complaints.

We’ve seen some reviews on Williams Sonoma’s website suggesting that the Pantry Towels are slightly different than the ones from years past. We got a new set of towels at the end of 2020, and after washing and drying them five times, we compared them to our older towels and found no difference in performance. It’s helpful to remember that washing can change the look and feel of a towel quite a bit: It will shrink and thicken after one wash, and soften after several, becoming more absorbent as the protective sizing washes off. We’ve been using those newer towels since then, and haven’t seen any signs of wear.

The only flaw with the Williams Sonoma towel is that if you want to order it online, the shipping charge bumps the price per towel from $5 to $7.75. There are a couple of ways around this dilemma. If you live near a Williams Sonoma store, you could simply purchase the towels there. Or you could purchase enough items to put you over the free-shipping threshold (usually $49). These towels make excellent holiday and hostess gifts, so you might want to stock up. Or if you can wait, these towels regularly go on sale, sometimes with free shipping.

If you’re looking for an affordable kitchen towel built to handle your day-to-day spills, the Utopia Towels Kitchen Bar Mops are your best option. These terry cloth towels are durable, absorbent, and easily washable. These aren’t the kind of towel you’d want to hang on display. But since they cost about a dollar apiece, you can keep a stack of them stashed in a drawer for extra-messy tasks, and you won’t have to worry too much about stains.

They soaked up ½ cup of water consistently, as well as cleaned up a sticky smoothie effectively. After running them through the washer (in hot water) and dryer multiple times, we spotted a couple of frayed threads, but the seams held up remarkably well.

Although these towels are great for cleaning up spills and drying your hands, they are not meant to polish your glassware. In our tests, they still deposited lint on glasses after multiple runs through the wash. They also aren’t the most attractive towels—some may even argue that they resemble bathroom hand towels. But they do come in several colors besides white, which isn’t the case with many other bar mops. Like most bar mops, they’re small: about 15 by 17 inches after washing and drying, whereas standard kitchen towels are about 20 by 30 inches. But if you’re looking to get the job done and aren’t worried about hanging these on display, these are the towels to get.

Aunt Martha’s Premium Flour Sack Dish Towels are the thickest and highest-quality flour sack towels we’ve ever tested. They’re oversized (we recommend the 33- by 38-inch size), lint-free, and finely woven. Their absorbency and smoothness make these towels ideal for delicate jobs like wicking excess moisture from tender herbs, lettuces, and berries. Although Aunt Martha’s towels can’t mop up a spill as quickly as our other picks, their usefulness for food preparation sets them apart.

We’ve looked at a few flour sack towels over the years, but none match the performance of Aunt Martha’s. Because they’re lint-free, these cloths are great for drying glassware as well as food prep. Flour sack cotton is thin, so it’s a good alternative to cheesecloth for straining liquids or wicking excess moisture from cut watery vegetables like eggplant. These towels are also great for serving warm dinner rolls at the table.

Even though they’re thinner than the Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel towels, the biggest Aunt Martha’s towels are 50 percent larger (measuring 33 by 38 inches to their 20 by 30 inches). What the Aunt Martha’s towels lack in absorbency per square inch, they make up for in more surface area, and the thinner cotton allows the towel itself to dry faster.

If you’re into colorful or decorative kitchen towels, these are not for you, because they’re available in white only (although they make a good blank canvas for painting or stamping if you want to decorate them yourself).

Because of their proximity to bacteria, kitchen towels need frequent laundering to prevent cross-contamination. Ideally, if you use a towel throughout the course of preparing a meal, throw it in the hamper and replace it with a clean one. But we’re real people too, and we understand that life gets busy and obsessively washing your kitchen rags is time-consuming. All we ask is that you don’t let them get to the point where they start to smell sour, because then you know that thing is a petri dish.

Usually a cold-water wash cycle with detergent is enough to clean your kitchen linens after normal use. But if you’re dealing with a grease stain, pretreat the spot with dish soap and warm water before running the towel through a hot-water wash cycle.

For all-white towels, we use chlorine bleach in the wash to keep them bright. For patterned or colored fabrics, a scoop of powdered oxygenated bleach (like OxyClean or Clorox Oxy Magic) helps to remove most stains.

We plan to test a handful of new kitchen towels from Williams Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, and Food52 once we can safely return to our test kitchen (which has been closed for most of the pandemic). The Williams Sonoma Super Absorbent Towels and Super Absorbent Waffle Weave Towels could rival our top pick. Both are textured, while also coming in different patterns and colors that some people might prefer over the solid-colored Williams Sonoma All Purpose Pantry Towels.

Crate & Barrel's Cuisine Stripe Dish Towels look very similar to the discontinued flat weave towels from Crate & Barrel that used to be our runner-up. They’re 100 percent cotton, woven, and come in several colors. Food52 also makes some comparable, 100 percent cotton woven towels, the Five Two Essential Kitchen Towels. The only downside is they cost $35 for two towels—more than twice the price of the Crate & Barrel towels.

While we plan to test these as soon as we can, our capacity is limited by the COVID restrictions of our testing space. We’ll update the guide as we’re able to.

We compared the Target Made By Design Barmop Towels with our former budget pick, the Real Simple Antimicrobial Bar Mops, for a blog post about Target’s affordable home goods line. As we wrote in the post, the Target towel was thinner, smaller, and less absorbent than the Real Simple bar mop.

We used to recommend the Now Designs Ribbed Towel. Our original towels are still holding up well, with no traces of loose threads or fraying, but the new towels we bought in 2017 are far less durable. Some of the stitches loosened after 10 wash cycles. These findings mirrored some Amazon comments about the towels’ decline in quality.

We can’t say for sure that the Sur la Table Ribbed Kitchen Towels are a rebrand of the Now Designs towels, but they bear an uncanny resemblance. Unlike the Now Designs, the Sur la Table towels held up through multiple washings. But if they are the same towel, we could see durability issues arise down the road.

Like our top pick, the Crate and Barrel Waffle-Terry Dish Towel has a terry-cloth side and a waffle-weave side. But the fabric is almost too thick and absorbent. The tea stain didn’t lift completely, even after a soak in hot water and oxygenated bleach.

Towels by Doctor Joe Surgical Huck Towels are lintless and absorbent, but also small and thin. We think flour sack towels are a better choice because of their large size.

The Utopia Kitchen Flour Sack Towels are smaller and much thinner than our pick, Aunt Martha’s. The loose weave makes these so thin, you can almost see through them.

The hem of the KitchenSmart Kitchen Towel (pictured above) from Bed Bath & Beyond completely unraveled after the fifth wash cycle.