Yahoo Finance 8 best outdoor pizza ovens that are definitely worth your dough
We’ve been reviewing pizza ovens at IndyBest since 2018 and in that time, not only have we seen plenty of advances in the ovens on offer, but also a significant improvement in our outdoor cookery skills – particularly during 2020’s lockdown, when we really threw ourselves into our work.
Design is so important when it comes to pizza ovens, from the size of the base that will dictate how big a single pizza can be, to the size of the opening - determining how easy it is to manoeuvre your pizza within the oven, so you have more control over its cooking process.
Nowadays, many of these outdoor ovens can produce so much more than pizza,and can actually make a range of meat and fish dishes. That’s why, when testing, we also looked at how well these gadgets could cook a rib-eye steak and roast a whole chicken.
How we tested
We used the same dough throughout our testing to make a classic Neapolitan pizza. We were looking for a pie with a nice crispy base and a slightly chewy texture to the crust. We also paid close attention to how quickly and efficiently the oven got up to the high temperatures needed to cook delicious pizza, and how well they retained that heat (their insulation) to take the hassle out of wood-fired cookery.
With our steak, we were looking at how easy it was for us to get the meat medium rare and how moist and juicy our roast chicken came out of the oven.
So, after spending plenty of time marrying food to flame, we were left with a line-up that could turn any Neapolitan newbie into a professional Pizzaiolo in no time.
The best outdoor pizza ovens for 2022 are:
Best overall – Ooni koda 12: £299, Ooni.com
Best Neapolitan pizza oven – Gozney dome: £1,199, Gozney.com
Best for multiple munchers – Lifestyle Verona pizza oven: £799, Firepit.co.uk
Best portable pizza oven – Gozney roccbox: £399, Gozney.com
Best multiple fuel oven – Ooni karu 16: £699, Ooni.com
Best for camping – Vango camp chef pizza oven: £145, Vango.co.uk
Best design – Delivita berry hot oven: £1,395, Cuckooland.com
Best for table tops – Auplex kamado pizza oven: £310, Kamadogrill.co.uk
Ooni koda 12
We’ve loved this oven ever since it was released in 2019, mainly because it makes everything about outdoor cookery so incredibly simple. Under five minutes from unboxing, we were all set up, with the oven on its way to perfect pizza-making temperature which, because of its internal dimensions took only 20 minutes.
No more than 90 seconds of cooking gave us a 12in pizza with the perfect blend of oozing cheese and crispy toppings, as well as lovely charring around the well-puffed crust. Turning and accessing pizzas also isn’t a problem with the wide-mouthed design meaning that, with the aid of a turning peel, you can move the base around without having to take it out of the oven.
We always seem to get the best results from Ooni’s range on the koda 12, but maybe that’s because we’re just so used to cooking with it by now. In fact, we’ve become so confident that we’ve been expanding our dishes beyond pizza, to trays full of fajita mix – which come out of the oven wonderfully smoky – and even moist and juicy steaks.
As well as being compatible with traditional large propane tanks, for when you’re using the oven at home, the very lightweight (9.5kg) koda 12 will also run on 1lb tanks, making it one of the most portable pizza ovens on the market when you combine it with the £39.99 Ooni carry-case (£39.99, Ooni.com).
Buy now £299.00, Ooni.com
Gozney dome
Launched in April 2021, the dome is essentially a scaled-down version of the ovens that Gozney installs in professional kitchens. Although, it’s actually still a sizeable piece of kit with the dimensions of a traditional Neapolitan oven.
We tested the dual fuel version (the purely wood fired option costs £1,199), which reached cooking temperature (500C) in around 50 minutes, tracking the heat build-up with the mounted digital thermometer, which was very accurate. The sizeable opening means that it easily swallows a 15-16in pizza, cooking it in two minutes under a lovely, rolling, golden flame. Alternatively, there’s room for a couple of smaller pizzas and plenty more space for turning the pizza while it cooks for optimum results.
Whatever the size, the dome produced wonderful Neapolitan pizza, with a perfect crust – puffy, airy and delicious to the bite, while the rest of the pizza was classically thin but equally delicious. Similarly, the rib-eye was juicy and there’s plenty of room to roast a chicken too, if you fancy a smoky spin on the traditional Sunday roast.
The insulation was fabulous and added to the stress-free experience as we didn’t have to keep worrying about temperature control, so it’s clear to see why demand for the Dome has been huge. This is a fantastic oven for anyone who wants to take their outdoor cookery up a notch or three, all summer-long.
Buy now £1199.00, Gozney.com
Lifestyle Verona pizza oven
Okay, so the Verona isn’t going to win any style points compared to some of the other ovens on offer, but it’s like one of those amazing discoveries when you’re on holiday in Italy. A trattoria that doesn’t look very much on the outside, but investigate further and you’ll find it produces delicious food.
Looking more like a traditional BBQ than a pizza oven, the Verona is housed on a stand with a front drawer and cabinet (for utensils and the gas canister), as well as two foldaway prep shelves on either side. Optimum temperature was reached in 45 minutes and there’s plenty of controllability.
The big glass door means you can easily see when your pizza is nearing perfection on the stone at the bottom of the oven. We got a 10in pizza with a crisped base, good crust and just cooked toppings. However, there are multiple cooking surfaces within the oven, with two more racks above the stone, making it easy to cater for pizza and meat lovers alike.
Even though it’s a gas-fuelled oven, it does have a trick up its sleeve in the shape of a built-in wood chip smoker, which makes the pizzas taste more traditional in terms of wood-fired flavour.
Buy now £799.00, Firepit.co.uk
Gozney roccbox
The Gozney is an old flame of ours (pardon the pun) and we’ve reviewed it before, but it’s still one of the best ovens around if you want to add some portability to your pizza making. It produces a lovely flame, which rolls over the roof of the chamber and has a good reach, creating deliciously, crispy 11in pizzas that need minimal turning thanks to the even heat environment in the oven.
The oven was pizza-ready in around 20 minutes, and the crust was cooked and crispy in two. You can fit the roccbox with a detachable wood burner, but the oven produces a pure golden gas flame, rather than the blue flames that you will see on some inferior ovens, giving the user a real taste of the wood-fired experience.
A little on the heavy side (20kg) to be carried for great distances, it does lend itself well to the car boot, so no matter where you travel you’re never far away from great food.
Buy now £399.00, Gozney.com
Ooni karu 16
We reviewed Ooni’s new oven last year and there’s good reason why it’s made the list again – it really seems to represent a culmination of all the knowledge that Ooni has acquired about wood-fired and gas-fuelled outdoor cooking, which has then been condensed down into this excellent oven.
The full glass door allows you to maintain the temperature and still keep a close eye on what’s cooking, as well as giving a good view of the excellent flame roll that’s created. The front-mounted digital thermometer was spot on, which meant that we had bags of control over the 16in that came out of the oven in around 60-seconds. For the connoisseurs among you, we can confirm our pizza had a superb, crispy base thanks to the dry heat environment that the karu 16 creates.
The pizza stone worked well at drawing the moisture from wet pizza dough, leaving it wonderfully crispy, but still succulent in all the right places. The same was equally true with the control we had over other meats, especially our chicken, which came out of the oven succulently smoky.
Read the full Ooni karu 16 review
Buy now £699.00, Ooni.com
Vango camp chef pizza oven
There was a time when you went camping and the most you could expect at meal times was a Pot Noodle, however Vango’s camp chef means you can turn out pizza after pizza using the cookers gas burners. The oven sits on top of the burners and uses them as the heat source to get the 10in ceramic pizza stone up to temperature, which takes around 10 minutes on full power, the temperature of which was easily controlled using the gas controls. We found the oven achieved a nice crispy base in around two minutes and a slightly doughier one in 90 seconds, if that’s your preference.
Buy now £145.00, Vango.co.uk
Delivita berry hot oven
We’ve always really liked the styling of the Delivita with its sleek, shiny fibre glass shell that houses a supremely efficient oven, which after being loaded with wood is ready to go in 25-30 minutes and produces wonderful results. The berry hot effortlessly cooked a 12in base and crust with a lovely bite, evenly melted mozzarella and well-cooked toppings. And the design of the oven imparted a truly authentic woody flavour throughout the whole pizza.
The traditional clay base retains the cooking heat efficiently, acting as a perfect heat sink by storing and radiating heat back into the pizza base and making for a sublime steak. Due to the efficiency of the oven you are left to concentrate on your pizza without fussing with the fuel, which is a blessing, especially if you’re not overly familiar with cooking with fire. There was a wonderfully wood-fired flavour to the bases too, which can be rotated easily inside the oven so you can adjust whether you want them crispy or doughy.
Buy now £1395.00, Cuckooland.com
Auplex kamado pizza oven
We’ve all heard of kamado BBQs, but now kamado pizza ovens are having their moment. It seems only natural as the big bonus of kamado cookery has always been that the ceramic, which is what it’s traditionally made from, ensures that the wood fire gets the oven up to temperature quickly, insulates and maintains the heat. This is perfect for cooking pizza and after setting the fire and getting the Auplex up to temperature in 40 minutes, using the accurate thermometer, we pushed the wood back to reveal a large cooking stone that was able to take a 10in disc of dough.
The stone crisped up our dough and puffed up our crust from beneath, while the ambient heat created by the fire in the ceramic shell was enough to evenly cook the mozzarella to a sufficiently gooey level. The opening was wide enough for us to turn our pizza in the oven, but not so wide that we lost lots of the precious heat through it. And, the fact that the oven sits on two metal legs with heat resistant bamboo handles on either side made it perfect for balcony or table top cooking.
Buy now £310.00, Kamadogrill.co.uk
Outdoor pizza ovens FAQs
Types of pizza oven
You’ll have a choice between wood-fired, gas and multi-fuel pizza ovens – the latter gives the option of wooden pellets, charcoal and gas attachments for optimum temperature control.
Care and maintenance
You won’t need to worry about cleaning the inside part of your wood-fired oven, as the temperatures inside get so high that bacteria won’t be able to survive.
Even just using water can damage the oven, so this is best avoided. Any bits of food or spillages will be burnt to ash anyway, which you can then sweep away with a brush or remove with a vacuum. Make sure to do this after each use, as built up ash will make your food more likely to burn. If you go for an oven with a chimney, it’s also a good idea to sweep this out at least once a year.
To clean the pizza stone, gently scrape off any food before using a minimal amount of hot water and a brush to get rid of any remaining stains. Again, cleaning chemicals should be avoided here, as they may soak into the stone and transfer into your food while cooking.
To keep the outside of the oven looking its best, smudges and fingerprints can be removed from stainless steel with a damp cloth, before being polished with a microfiber cloth. To reduce the likelihood of cracks in a stone or brick oven, you should heat it up for a few hours before using it. Finally, it’s recommended that you invest in a pizza oven cover to protect it from the good old British weather and keep upkeep to a minimum.
What to look for in a pizza oven
The most important thing is heat – can it reach the correct temperature (usually around 500C) fast enough? It may seem obvious, but you will also need to make sure it’s the right size; will it fit through the doorway; do the dimensions work with the outside space you have available?
Finally, go for a metal oven if you’re planning on doing more speedy cooking over a shorter period, as although they tend to heat up quicker, they are less effective at retaining heat.
Types of pizza oven accessories
While accessories aren’t always necessary, there are a number of different gadgets you can buy to improve your pizza oven experience including a pizza peel – the shovel-like tool you use to take your dough in and out of the oven. Other accessories you might like to invest in are BBQ oven gloves to prevent burns, an electric fire starter, which allows you to easily light your charcoal or wood, and a thermometer gun, which measures the radiating temperature inside the pizza oven.
What else can you cook in a pizza oven?
Pizza ovens are great multitaskers. Aside from your usual margherita, you’ll be able to rustle up roasted vegetables, baked or grilled fish, steak, jacket potatoes, smoked and barbecued meats and even freshly made bread.
The verdict: Pizza ovens
Wonderfully simple, the Ooni koda 12 has a foolproof design which makes it almost impossible not to produce wonderfully tasty pizza, and the fact it’s so portable means that nowhere’s out of bounds for a pizza party.
On the other end of the scale, in terms of price and sophistication, is the Gozney dome, which is an oven we had high expectations of after the huge demand for the oven last year. Thankfully, it didn’t disappoint, and it really is the ultimate when it comes to truly authentic top down Neapolitan pizza perfection.
For more kitchen accessories, read our review of the best salt and pepper mills, the best bread knives and the best slow cookers
