Short version: Mikasa needs to improve their quality control process. I ordered the 40-piece set (service for 8) a few months ago, and the pattern was well molded on each of the pieces, though from the other reviewers photos posted here, their pattern looks more clean and crisp than mine. The drawback to the 40-piece set, with the flat bowls, is that the bowls only hold 9 ounces of soup. The bonus with the 40-piece set is having 8-ounce teacups with saucers. Every dinner plate in the 40-piece set is warped and when the plates are stacked in the cabinet at some points the plate rims are touching, and at other points there is 1/2 inch gap. All the saucers are perfectly shaped, and I would expect Mikasa to do the same for the other size plates. The 40-piece set was made in China. As for this 16-piece set, the pattern is blurry and undefined. This set was made in Indonesia. The mugs in particular have no flower pattern visible at all, just blobs (see photo posted by another reviewer). The plate patterns are slightly better than the mugs, but not by much. The molding and pattern in the 40-piece set I bought a few moths ago looks significantly better. With this set, it seems the molds are worn out, or the molds were not cleaned out after pressing each piece. The salad plates are also more "bowl like" in shape than the plates from my 40-piece set, rather than a flat plate shape. The big plus with the 16-piece set is the soup bowl size at 24 ounces, which can easily hold a can of soup, and is more than double the bowl size from my 40-piece set. The mugs are a good size at 11.5 ounces, and also fit well on the teacup saucers from my other set, which helps protect the wood kitchen table. Overall, I am mostly "okay" with this purchase, I put all the plates from this set on the bottom of my stacks, so they will rarely be used. The bowls are a good size, and the mugs are also a good size. I bought "Italian Countryside" plates because I already owned the magnificent "Italian Countryside" stainless silverware, and felt these plates would match nicely. The stainless silverware really is magnificent, I'm not exaggerating. If I had a "do over" on the plates, I probably would purchase a set of Mikasa "Trellis" which is similarly priced, very elegant, and seems higher quality than "Italian Countryside" sets. But there are no teacups with "Trellis" and instead it includes 14 ounce mugs. In closing, based on my observations and the numerous other reviews here, the "Italian Countryside" collection needs some attention from Mikasa, including some visits to factories, and a review of the manufacturing and quality control process.
