The Best Spatulas of 2021
— Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.
If there’s one kitchen gadget you already own in some for or fashion, it’s a spatula. Useful for everything from scooping cookies off a baking sheet to scraping down a bowl of batter, you may even have a few different models. A good spatula, like our favorite Wusthof Gourmet Offset Slotted Spatula (available at Amazon for $49.95), is worth keeping within reach.
In fact, we’d argue that having a few different types of spatulas handy is worth giving up the drawer space to store them. At the very least, you’ll want a great flat cooking spatula, like the Cutco Turn n’ Serve (available at Cutco for $59), and an awesome baking spatula, like the Di Oro Large Silicone Spatula (available at Amazon for $12.97). There’s no better feeling than knowing you have the right tool on hand to flip a pancake, cook a perfect over-easy egg, and get the last bit of brownie batter out of your bowl.
From flat flippers to silicone baking scrapers to thin, slotted fish turners, you can find the best tool for any particular kitchen task. Each spatula serves a different purpose, so we set out to find the best one in each category. We put a few models of four different types of spatula through their paces. We tested both metal and non-stick flat cooking spatulas, wiped bowls with a selection of baking spatulas, flipped foods using a handful of delicate slotted fish spatulas, and explored whether or not an offset baking spatula would be a worthy addition to your kitchen.
After testing more than a dozen products, we found our standouts. So whether you’re looking to upgrade your kitchen or find a small gift for the home chef or baker in your life, there’s a spatula for you.
Here are the best spatulas we tested ranked, in order:
Wusthof Gourmet Offset Slotted Spatula
Cutco Turn n’ Serve
Material Soft-Edge Turner
Anolon 12-inch SureGrip Solid Turner
Di Oro Large Silicone Spatula
Ateco Offset Spatula with 4.5-Inch Stainless Steel Blade
GIR (Get It Right) Premium Silicone Spatula
Wilton 9-Inch Angled Spatula
Tovolo Flex-Core Stainless Steel Handled Spatula
GDYorkitchen Fish Spatula
KSENDALO Kitchen Nonstick Fish Spatula
Victorinox Slotted Fish Turner
Rubbermaid High Heat Silicone Spatula
GIR (Get It Right) Premium Silicone Spatula Turner
Castle Cookware Flexible Silicone Spatula Turner
Ateco Offset Spatula with 7.63-Inch Stainless Steel Blade
Norpro Turner
OXO Good Grips Large Silicone Flexible Turner
Rachel Ray Nylon 2-Piece Spatula Set
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
This sleek fish turner is the best spatula we tested.
Best Overall Wusthof Gourmet Offset Slotted Spatula
A slotted spatula, or fish spatula, might seem like an odd choice if you don’t spend much time making fish—but they also make great overall spatulas. They’re best for delicate tasks like cooking eggs and tofu and fish, but can also be great for pancakes and cookies and other tasks you’d typically do with a flat spatula. And of the offset slotted spatulas we tested, the Wusthof reigned supreme.
Like its fellows, this delicate turner features a slight curve to the head and an angled end. Unlike a few of them, the Wusthof also has an extra angle right at the tip to more easily slide under delicate tofu skin and lightly set eggs. This made it especially wonderful for handling over-easy eggs and other delicate foods. The best part? It also worked great on burgers, pancakes, and cookies.
To top it off, the handle is sleek but with enough heft to really grab onto and maneuver. And thanks to its wood-free construction, it can easily be cleaned by tossing it into a dishwasher.
Pros
Slides under delicate foods easily
Sleek but sturdy handle
Dishwasher safe
Cons
Not for use with nonstick cookware
$49.95 from Amazon
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
Our favorite flat spatula from Cutco is surprisingly versatile.
Best Flat Spatula Cutco Turn n’ Serve
A flat cooking spatula is a kitchen staple—ideal for removing cookies from a baking tray, flipping pancakes and eggs, and any other cooking task that requires slipping under food to move it around. And the Cutco Turn n’ Serve flat cooking spatula takes the cake. (No seriously, we used it to move a cake and it worked great.)
It’s more expensive than we would typically recommend for a spatula, but this is a “you get what you pay for” situation. This spatula is pricey, but comes with a lifetime guarantee and will never send you back to your utensil drawer looking for a better tool.
The Cutco Turn n’ Serve performed incredibly well on all of our tests. The flat head is thin enough to easily slide under delicate eggs and tofu, but sturdy enough to flip burgers and lift a cake from a cake turner onto a serving plate. It’s a good size as well, hitting the sweet spot between being narrow enough to fit into your brownie pan and lift out a piece, and wide enough to be useful for flipping pancakes and removing cookies from your baking tray.
The only downside we found with this spatula is that it’s metal. And while this allows it to be as thin as a delicate fish spatula, it cannot be used on a nonstick pan. So if you only use nonstick cookware, you will have to opt for a silicone tool.
Pros
Fantastically multipurpose
Includes lifetime guarantee
Versatile size
Cons
Pricey
Cannot use on nonstick surfaces
$59.00 from Cutco
Buy now at Amazon
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
Our best baking spatula is great for mixing, folding, and spreading.
Best Baking Spatula Di Oro Seamless Spatula
Everyone needs a silicone baking spatula, and the Di Oro Large Silicone Spatula is an excellent choice for folding flour into your batter and then scraping down the sides of your bowl. It’s a single, slick piece of silicone, so you don’t need to worry about the head snapping off. The handle is sturdy and solid, while the head is just flexible enough to scrape down tricky-to-reach areas of your bowl.
The one-side-curved, one-side-straight head of this spatula makes it excellent for reaching into different types of corners (for instance, when scraping dough from a round bowl or when smoothing brownie batter into a square tin). The medium/large spatula head means you can get the job done quickly and easily. Overall, this spatula worked wonderfully through all our tests, and I’m now considering buying yet another baking spatula for my kitchen.
Pros
No pieces to come apart
Head has one curved and one straight side
Medium to large head
Cons
Nothing we could find
$10.97 from Amazon
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
A good frosting spatula needs to be thin enough for detail work.
Best Frosting Spatula Ateco 1385 4.5” Offset Spatula
The most niche of the spatula categories is the offset baking spatula, which works best for frosting cakes and cupcakes, and cutting/removing brownies from a tray. That said, they also work well for flipping pancakes and sliding cookies off a tray, so don’t write them off as a unitasker!
The small Ateco offset baking spatula topped our tests in this category. Delicate and perfectly shaped, it’s ideal for spreading frosting—and for making interesting textures and patterns if you’re into decorating. The narrow blade is perfect for getting into corners when spreading batter in a pan, and the spatula itself really feels like an extension of your fingers.
The only downside is that the handle is made of wood, so you do need to wash it by hand. (Which, to be honest, takes all of about 60 seconds.)
Pros
Good size for versatility
Narrow blade
Cons
Not dishwasher safe
$4.97 from Amazon
$7.02 from Walmart
Credit: Material
This spatula can turn, stir, sauté, and more.
Best Nonstick Spatula Material Soft-Edge Turner
Material’s Soft-Edge Turner is smooth as butter thanks to its BPA-free silicone. It passed our egg-flipping test with flying colors, never breaking a yolk and allowing eggs to easily slide off the spatula’s nonstick surface. The shape of this spatula is great for flipping tofu and pancakes, thanks to the beveled edge. This spatula is extremely comfortable to hold because of the even weight distribution—it’s a sturdy product, without being overly heavy or bulky, due to the reinforced nylon core.
Because it’s a nonstick spatula, cleanup is a breeze whether you’re handwashing or popping it in the dishwasher. We tested the Oyster (white) and Terra Rosa (light pink) versions and were pleased to find that neither was stained by tomato-based sauces.
While this product aced most of our tests, we think the head could stand to be slightly larger. That said, it’s a great size for eggs, pancakes, smaller cuts of various proteins, veggies, and most things you’d cook on the stovetop or roast on a sheet pan.
Pros
Sleek design
Easy to clean
Comfortable to hold
Feels sturdy
Cons
Head is on the small side
Buy now at Material
How We Tested
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
We tested 16 spatulas for our roundup.
The Testers
Hi, I’m Madison, the Kitchen & Cooking editor. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I’m constantly baking cookies, cakes, or other treats, which means I rely heavily on spatulas in my kitchen. My go-to cooking tool is a nonstick silicone spatula, but my utensil drawer is also filled with an offset spatula, a few mini baking spatulas, and a slotted flat spatula. Why choose when you don’t have to?
Hi, I’m Bethany. I’m an avid home cook and frequent home baker. I make a lot of eggs, bake a lot of cookies, and use at least one type of spatula most days.
I also somehow own 14 spatulas already. Most of them were gifts, or ended up in my utensil drawer after roommates abandoned them over the years. I do have favorites though—spatulas that just seem to work better and that I gravitate toward using.
The Tests
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
We frosted cakes, scooped cookies, and grilled burgers with our spatulas.
To put our spatulas through their paces, we split them out into four different categories: Flat cooking spatula, baking spatula, slotted spatula, and offset baking spatula. They each serve a different function, with some overlap of course, so we devised a specific set of tests for each and mostly compared them to other spatulas of the same type.
For our flat cooking spatulas, we tested flipping both normal sized and silver dollar pancakes, making and removing over easy eggs from a stainless steel pan, removing cookies from a baking tray, flipping and removing burgers from a pan, and lifting and moving a cake from a cake decorating stand to a serving tray.
For the baking spatulas, we mostly tested their ability to fold flour into batter, to scrape down the sides of bowls that were used to mix brownies and cake, to spread thick brownie batter in a tray, and to melt butter and chocolate together on the stove. Throughout these tests, we were looking to see which could easily maneuver around the inside of the bowl.
With the slotted spatulas, we focused on delicate and precision work. This meant testing over-easy eggs and fried tofu along with the standard tests of cookies, pancakes, and burgers. And then for the offset baking spatulas, we started our tests with baking-specific tasks like spreading frosting before doubling up on the pancake and cookie tests once again. If each of these spatulas couldn’t at least approximate good results with cookies and pancakes, we thought we might rethink the need to keep one in our kitchen.
For each of these spatula categories, we took careful notes on whether the spatulas simply pushed things around the pan, or was actually able to scoot underneath and delicately remove the food. We also paid close attention to how comfortable each was to use, whether they were either too rigid or too flexible for the job, and how easy they were to clean.
A Few Things to Know about Spatulas
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
There are at least four types of spatulas to consider when shopping.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again—it’s worth owning a few different spatulas. While there is some overlap in their usage—both a fish turner and a flat spatula are great for flipping eggs and pancakes—each type of spatula serves essentially a different function. There’s nothing better for scraping down a bowl of batter than a baking spatula, and an offset baking tool can really up your frosting game. If you like to bake in particular, having a few different utensils of this sort on hand can be a godsend.
However, if you only want one or two cluttering up your drawers, we recommend a flat spatula and a baking spatula. That way you have something to flip pancakes and scoop cookies with, but also something to scrape down the side of your bowl or pot with.
A few things to look out for when you’re considering spatulas: Depending on what you plan to use them for, make sure your spatula matches your pans. It goes without saying that you should never use a metal spatula on a nonstick pan. As well, if you’re planning on using your baking spatula on the stove to mix hot ingredients, be sure that it really is heat safe (i.e. made of silicone, not plastic).
Other Spatulas We Tested
Anolon SureGrip Solid Turner
The Anolon 12-inch SureGrip Solid Turner is nonstick, but it didn’t perform quite as well as the top spatulas we tested. The head of the spatula is somewhat oddly shaped, making it kind of awkward to flip eggs. However, the sharp edge is amazing for flipping tofu and pancakes because it allows you to wedge the spatula under the food before flipping.
It’s heat-resistant up to 400°F and dishwasher-safe, which makes cleanup a breeze. Its design is sleek enough to blend in with most kitchen decor, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like it was built to last.
Pros
Hard edge is great for flipping food
Relatively sleek design
Easy to clean
Cons
Awkward to hold when flipping eggs
Feels somewhat flimsy
$6.99 from Amazon
$17.59 from Overstock
GIR Ultimate Spatula
This sturdy silicone spatula was a close runner-up to our baking winner, and for good reason. It’s very similar in size, shape, and material to our top pick. The biggest differences are a slightly narrower and more flexible head, and a handle that is ever-so-slightly shorter. The shape of the head is also slightly different, and we found it didn’t scrape bowls of batter quite as well. That said, this GIR spatula is still a quality product.
Pros
All silicone
Dishwasher safe
Cons
Head shape less than ideal for scraping bowls
Buy now at Amazon
$29.51 from Walmart
Wilton 9 Inch Angled Spatula
Similar to the Ateco, the Wilton offset baking spatula is overall a bit bigger than its winning counterpart. This wider, longer blade and larger handle make it less ideal for precision icing work. It performed well on all of our tests, but couldn’t beat out the more delicate version that took our top spot. The upside is that, because it’s entirely plastic and metal, you can throw it right in the dishwasher when you’re done.
Pros
Dishwasher safe
Cons
Slightly too big for intricate jobs
$9.49 from Amazon
Buy now at Walmart
Tovolo Flex-Core Stainless Steel Handled Spatula
The Tovolo steel-handled spatula is a heavy duty hunk of a tool. It has some heft to it, which we found useful for stirring thick brownie batter full of chocolate chips. The edges of the head don’t bend well, though, making it less useful for sneaking into nooks and crannies. Additionally, the metal base and the silicone head detach from each other—meaning you do run the risk of eventually needing to clean it in two different pieces. Fortunately, it’s dishwasher-safe.
Pros
Sturdy handle
Dishwasher safe
Cons
Head and handle come apart
Edges of the head don't bend well
$9.79 from Amazon
$18.87 from Walmart
GDYorkitchen Fish Spatula
Rather nondescript, this fish spatula is larger and less comfortable than our winner from Wusthof. It was able to slide under eggs and tofu fairly well, but lost points when it came to comfort because of the way the metal bends around the back. The handle itself is comfortable, but when we needed to hold it closer to the head of the spatula to maneuver under some food, we ran into problems.
Pros
Nonslip grips on handle
Cons
Uncomfortable when gripping close to spatula
$9.88 from Amazon
KSENDALO Kitchen Nonstick Fish Spatula
Typically, fish spatulas are made of metal so they can be thin and delicate enough to slide between a fish and its scales. However, this makes them impossible to use with nonstick cookware. So, we decided to test the KSENDALO Kitchen nonstick fish spatula and see how it compared.
It did well enough, working just fine for cookies and burgers and pancakes. However, you could tell that it lacked the same edge as the other metal spatulas when it came time to slide under eggs and tofu. It’s a great option for a nonstick pan, but it just can’t beat the delicate edge of its metal counterparts.
Pros
Can use with nonstick cookware
Sturdy enough for many cooking tasks
Cons
Non-metal edge makes some tasks difficult
$10.37 from Amazon
Victorinox 3" by 6" Chef's Slotted Fish Turner, Walnut Handle
The Victorinox slotted fish turner is a wonderful spatula—very similar to the winning Wusthof. The biggest physical difference is the handle. Not only can it not be put in the dishwasher because it’s made of wood, but it’s a bit scratchy to hold. It also didn’t perform quite as well on our tests. These drawbacks, plus its ever-so-slightly shorter handle, bumped it down our list.
Pros
Angled design
Easy to maneuver
Cons
Not large or long enough for the grill
$28.00 from Amazon
$20.53 from Walmart
Rubbermaid Commercial 9.5 In. High Heat Scraper
If you’re using a massive bowl, this Rubbermaid spatula works like a dream. However, it’s not compatible with smaller bowls. This spatula is huge, more than an inch longer and almost a half inch wider than the next longest baking spatula we tested. This made it tough to use for some of our tests, and it became a bit unwieldy. We also found the hard, rigid plastic handle a tad uncomfortable at times, knocking this further down the list.
Pros
Ideal for use with large mixing bowls
Cons
Uncomfortable plastic handle
Too large for many tasks
$8.98 from Amazon
$15.74 from Walmart
GIR Mini Flip
Much like a few of the baking spatulas we tested, this tiny turner is entirely silicone. This makes it comfortable to hold and easy to clean. However, it is tiny. The head of this spatula—while perfect for silver dollar pancakes and fine for small cookies—struggled with the large burgers and the egg whites that had drifted away from the yolk.
The angled edge of the head worked well for slipping under foods, though it still occasionally struggled and simply pushed a pancake or egg around the pan. (GIR does sell a larger version of this spatula, though we haven’t tested it yet ourselves. It may work better for some tasks, though it might also suffer from the same issues the other flat spatulas did in terms of being too flexible.)
Pros
All-silicone design
Dishwasher safe
Cons
Tiny size limits its versatility
Buy now at Amazon
$13.95 from Walmart
Castle Cookware Silicone Spatula
Overall, the Castle Cookware flexible silicone turner is a good size and a solid spatula. It didn’t struggle too hard with any of our tests, with the exception of moving the cake (which it was simply too flexible to manage). That said, it didn’t wow us either. It’s comfortable and wouldn’t be the worst to own, but we suggest making sure to have a few other spatulas on hand, too.
Pros
Flexible yet solidly constructed
Comfortable handle
Cons
Not sturdy enough for heavy lifting
$11.43 from Amazon
Ateco 1387 7.75” Offset Spatula
While its smaller sibling ran off with the prize, the larger Ateco spatula just couldn’t hold up. The sides of the wooden handle feel rather rough, and the blade itself is enormous. So while this worked well enough for frosting a large cake, it struggled with anything requiring precision or a delicate hand.
Pros
Large blade good for frosting cakes
Cons
Rough handle
Too large for many jobs
$8.73 from Amazon
$8.99 from Walmart
Norpro 917 Nylon Turner
This tiny plastic spatula is no-frills, affordable, and great at flipping eggs. It's a good enough shape for burgers, too, albeit a bit small. The Norpro Turner could be a good option for you if you really don’t want to spend much on a spatula, but don’t expect it to be able to do every task perfectly.
Pros
Affordable
Sturdy
Cons
Small
Feels disposable and cheaply made
$6.47 from Amazon
OXO Good Grips Large Silicone Flexible Turner
Although the handle of the OXO Good Grips turner is the same length as the Castle Cooker spatula, the head on this one is enormous. More than an inch longer and an inch wider than the next largest flat spatula, the OXO literally dwarfs the competition. Unfortunately, this made the spatula difficult to use. It crowded the pan full of pancakes, and was too floppy to help with the cake. Overall, this behemoth just couldn’t hold up to its counterparts.
Pros
Good handle
Cons
Too large
Not sturdy enough for heavy lifting
$11.99 from Amazon
$11.99 from Bed Bath & Beyond
Rachael Ray Nylon Turner 2-Piece Set
These spatulas come in a set of two, with a 10-inch and a 12-inch model. The larger one handled eggs like a dream, while the smaller one is better served tackling small cookies and silver dollar pancakes. Things got slippery during our tofu test because the spatulas are made of nylon. That said, we were surprised with how easily the larger of two flipped full-sized pancakes. They’re dishwasher-safe and relatively cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for.
Pros
Available in fun colors
Comes in a set of two
Cons
Flimsy
Slippery
$13.14 from Amazon
$14.86 from Walmart
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