BEST PIZZA OVENS FOR COOKING OUTDOORS THIS SUMMER AND BEYOND
OK, while it may require a little more effort than just opening the freezer, or app-tapping your way to pizza for dinner, there is something incredibly rewarding about preparing, making and cooking your very own cheesy, doughy, crusty deliciousness at home, using one of the many domestic pizza ovens currently available.
There’s a kind of alchemy involved in watching the raw ingredients turn into mouth-watering, smoky slices before your very eyes.
But you need a product you can guarantee will make the most of all your hard prep work in the kitchen, every time you fire up the pizza oven.
This year’s list of best pizza ovens features some familiar models that we still rate very highly, as well as new ovens that have hit the market since our last round-up.
What they all have in common is the ability to hit the high temperatures needed and deliver that heat evenly, so the crust is cooked, the base is crisped and the toppings and cheese combine to create Neapolitan nirvana.
How we tested
To make things fair, we went to our tried-and-trusted Neapolitan recipe, to see how well each oven cooked the classic base – crisping the bottom but keeping a slightly chewy texture to the crust, while imparting the sauce and cheese with the definitive smoky flavour that you would get from a trattoria’s oven in Naples.
We also tested on a bright sunny day when the outdoor temperature wasn’t too frigid, so we could accurately see how quickly the best outdoor pizza ovens got up to temperature without it struggling against the cold.
The best pizza ovens for 2024 are:
- Best pizza oven overall – Witt Etna rotante pizza oven: £699, Amazon.co.uk
- Best pizza oven for temperamental weather – Ooni volt 12 electric pizza oven: £799, Ooni.com
- Best pizza oven for cooking large quantities – Gozney dome pizza oven: £1,799, Gozney.com
- Best pizza oven for a small garden – Solo Stove pi pizza oven: £397, Solostove.com
- Best wood-fired pizza oven – Stadler made outdoor oven: £575, Stadlermade.com
Witt Etna rotante pizza oven
The Danish brand released its pizza oven to the UK market earlier this year and we were immediately impressed by the look of the rotante, with its wide-opening encased in a matte finish of either white, black, stone or orange.
It’s a beast of an oven; the cordierite stone is big enough to cook 16in pizzas, opening up a whole host of opportunities when it comes to what you serve up.
The rotante has a visible U-shaped burner that ignites easily and creates a consistent flame that surrounds your culinary creation, but underneath the stone is a second burner (that you can’t see) that ensures the base crisps up nicely.
So far, so very good, and we haven’t even got to the best part yet. We’ve been cooking pizzas in outdoor ovens for IndyBest for some time now and we’re still trying to perfect our turning technique, so the dough is cooked evenly by the flame. The rotante will save you the hassle, because, with the flick of a switch, the pizza stone will start revolving to ensure even cooking every time. It’s a game-changing idea, brilliantly executed, and consistently produced the best fresh pizza we’ve eaten all year at home.
Buy now £699.00, Amazon.co.uk
Ooni volt 12 electric pizza oven
When we had a sneak preview at Ooni’s new product earlier in the year it really whetted our appetite to get cooking with it in our own back garden. However, the garden had to wait because the volt 12 is an indoor/outdoor oven, so when BST isn’t playing ball the kitchen becomes the oven’s natural home.
Quite simply, it has an on/off switch, which means no more faffing around with kindling or gas valves, it just needs the power socket in your kitchen, hence the name. Obviously, it will take up a fair chunk of your countertop, so unless you have a space on par with Nigella’s, you’ll probably just be bringing it out when pizza is on the menu, and that also means finding somewhere to store it when it’s not in use.
Not that it’s an eyesore – Ooni has done its best to retain the sleek stylings of its purely outdoor ovens, with its steel and powder-coated shell housing a top and bottom heating element, so you have instant control over where the heat is coming from, which is handy if you’re keen on producing a variety of pizza styles, not just Neapolitan.
Three front-mounted dials control the timing, temperature and the direction of the heat. In the absence of a flame, Ooni has inset a light into the ceiling of the oven, so you can see the pizza cooking. A chime lets you know when you’re up to temperature and the numbers on the temperature dial flash as the oven reaches each temperature level on the way up.
It also has a boost setting, which comes in handy to maintain the temperature when the door is opened to turn your pizza, which you will still need to do.
Finally, the pizza. Our Neapolitan was ready to go in 90 seconds with the oven producing a base and crust with a lovely bite and aromatic, evenly melted mozzarella, time and time again.
Buy now £799.00, Ooni.com
Gozney yellow roccbox pizza oven
The roccbox has been a regular in our round-ups for years, as it consistently produces beautifully succulent Neapolitans. This summer, it’s back with a vibrant new colourway that will definitely brighten up back gardens or balconies, but you can still choose from the existing variants too, if yellow’s not your thing.
The colour is the only change Gozney has made to the oven – it retains its unique shaping, rather than a full domed design, which has the effect of elongating the flame and giving it a satisfying roll over the firebox roof.
This flame is close enough to cook your pizza in no time at all, without burning, cooking 11in pizzas with no need for turning, because the heat from the overhead flame spreads evenly in the chamber, so you can have a crispy base in around two minutes and a slightly doughier one in 90 seconds.
It still gets our vote as one of the best portable ovens out there, with easily retractable legs and a detachable external gas or wood burner, and the silicone outer layer stays cool to the touch. At 20kg, it’s one for the car rather than carrying, but it will guarantee that wherever you pitch up, pizza perfection isn’t too far away.
Read our full review of the Gozney roccbox pizza oven
Buy now £399.00, Gozney.com
Stadler made outdoor pizza oven
This hand-crafted oven from the Netherlands is shipped flat-packed, so you need a little investment in time and effort putting the corten steel parts together, but you don’t need to be super practical to get it up and running, thanks to the well-thought-out design.
Once you’ve put it together, you can guarantee even heat across the cordierite baking stones, ensuring the oven delivers a crispy 11in base in around four to five minutes without you having to constantly fiddle with the dough, which can lead to sticking and tearing.
Once the fire is going, you’ll need to wait just over half an hour before you can start cooking, but the pizza quality is consistently delicious, with beautifully smoky, flavourful dough, bubbles of cheese and well-cooked toppings.
Buy now £575.00, Stadlermade.com
Vango camp chef pizza oven
Designed to be used with the manufacturer’s camp chef cooking system, this is a great way of repurposing a traditional camping cooker to produce something a little more exotic.
The oven sits on top of the gas burners and uses them as the heat source to get the ceramic pizza stone up to temperature, which it did, very quickly, in around 15 minutes.
There’s plenty of room to manoeuvre in terms of getting the pizza in and out, as well as turning it halfway through, and the oven does a very respectable job of cooking any toppings evenly, as well as puffing up that Neapolitan crust. The oven consistently made moreish 10in pizzas with the stone drawing out enough moisture from the dough to give a nice crisp base and chewy crust to each one.
Buy now £190.00, Vango.co.uk
DeliVita pizza oven
Handmade in Yorkshire, the DeliVita is a Roman-style oven with a polished fibreglass shell, which comes in a range of colours to suit any al fresco eating area. If you can’t find a suitable match, you can also have your oven in a bespoke colour for an extra £200. Thanks to the fibreglass shell, it’s surprisingly lightweight, just under 30kg, so can easily be moved around a garden.
The wood-fired DeliVita cooks as good as it looks and is roomy enough to rustle up 12in pizzas, with the traditional clay base ensuring it reaches the ideal cooking temperature in just under 30 minutes, while staying safe to touch on the outside.
Sixty seconds is all you’ll need before the pizza’s done and the cooking area makes the base so much easier to turn, helping to avoid burning. Our Neapolitan base was delightfully light and crispy every time with puffed cheese and well-cooked toppings.
Buy now £1395.00, Delivita.com
Gozney dome pizza oven
Launched in April 2021, the dome is essentially a scaled-down version of the ovens that grace professional kitchens and are installed by Gozney. 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 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.
The insulation was fabulous and added to the stress-free experience as we didn’t have to keep worrying about temperature control. This is a fantastic oven for anyone who wants to take their outdoor cookery up a notch or three.
Buy now £1799.00, Gozney.com
Solo Stove pi pizza oven
The company that made its name producing very nice-looking fire pits has now produced a very nice-looking stainless-steel pizza oven powered by a wood hopper or gas attachment, both of which are remarkably efficient at heating up the cooking stone to the required 450-500C within 15 minutes.
The cylindrical shape of the oven is unusual, however, it means it is a very compact oven that is also fuel efficient and makes the most of the wood it’s fed.
The wide mouth makes it easy to throw the pizza from the peel and there is a guard towards the back of the oven that ensures perfect placement every time, so you can avoid getting the pizza too close to the heat source when it first goes in.
The heat regulation and retention was fantastic and the resulting pizzas had a wonderfully smoky taste to the dough – it took minimal management to lightly char the crust and crisp up the toppings.
Buy now £399.99, Solostove.com
Le Feu turtle pizza oven
Producing a pizza oven was obviously a natural progression for this Danish manufacturer, which established its reputation making high-end bio fireplaces and has drawn on this expertise to come up with the gas-powered turtle.
Everything about this oven is easy on the eye, from the sturdy wooden legs to the black powder-coated steel, shell-like dome, which gives the oven its name and houses a split cordierite stone that can take a 13in disc of dough and turn it into a very appetising pizza.
A single dial at the front of the oven controls a linear burner at the back, which got the oven up to cooking temperature within 10 minutes and created a very even heat throughout the chamber.
Throwing and turning the pizza was very simple, thanks to the turtle’s large front aperture and what came out on the peel would have put a smile on the face of a seasoned pizzaiolo, with a pizza that was crispy on the bottom, suitably singed on the crust and mouth-wateringly smoky.
Buy now £499.00, Lefeu.co.uk
Ooni koda 12 pizza oven
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 £349.00, Ooni.com
Auplex kamado pizza oven
We’ve all heard of kamado barbecues, 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 tabletop cooking.
Buy now £249.00, Uklogsdirect.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
When it comes to the Witt Etna rotante pizza oven we had one of those “I didn’t know I needed it, until I got it” moments. Awarded the full five stars with good reason, the simple addition of the revolving stone takes all the guesswork out of producing delicious pizza time and time again. Each pizza we pulled out had a wonderfully even bake and the oven ensures all the hard work you’ve put into your prep doesn’t go up in smoke.
However, if you’re looking to take your oven with you on the road, we find it hard to choose between the Solo Stove pi and the Gozney roccbox, with the former edging it for mobility because of its brilliantly compact design and the latter maintaining its reputation for wonderfully tasty, no-turn pizza, thanks to its long, rolling flame.
Finally, an honourable mention has to go to the new Ooni volt 12 for its mains-powered versatility, which means kitchen pizza doesn’t have to come out of the freezer any more and you can combine fresh dough and fresh ingredients to produce pizzeria-grade food.
For more kitchen accessories, read our review of the best slow cookers
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2022-07-19T14:24:29Z dg43tfdfdgfd