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The 7 Best Pizza Ovens for Authentic Cooking at Home
Approved by the Esquire experts
Picture the scene; the sun’s out, your garden’s abuzz with conversation and you’re preparing a feast for your guests. They're expecting a bog-standard BBQ spread of overcooked sausages and underseasoned kebabs, but your top-of-the-range pizza oven has other plans. La dolce vita, indeed.
Rising in popularity in recent years, pizza ovens make crowd-pleasing Neapolitan pizza in a matter of minutes, meaning less time spent behind a grill and more time mingling with your guests.
What’s more, pizza ovens aren’t the exclusive preserve of margheritas and marinaras – they can cook meats, fish, breads and vegetables too, making them a versatile investment.
But with more and more brands wanting a slice of the pizza oven pie, it’s hard to know which ones will deliver on quality.
So, selflessly, we put the gadgets to the test, searching for those deserving of a space in your culinary arsenal. Keep scrolling for our seven worthy winners...
What to Look For in a Pizza Oven
To ensure your pizzas resemble those of Sorbillo (one of Naple’s finest pizza restaurants), there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
First things first, decide which fuel type you’d like to work with. Most use either gas or wood. While the former tends to be quicker and simpler to use, wood can add that familiar smoky flavour to your food. We tested gas models, but there are a couple of dual fuel models below too.
Temperature is another key consideration; to cook the perfect pizza, you need an oven that can reach at least 380 degrees. Generally, the hotter the oven gets, the quicker it will cook. But they do take a while to heat up, so if you want one that’s quick, go for the Ooni Koda 12, which was the fastest on test, reaching temperature in a mere 11 minutes.
A gauge is also important as it tells you when the oven is ready to use. While other important accessories include a pizza peel, a cover for safe storage and an infrared thermometer (if there’s no gauge included).
A larger cooking area will also help if you're cooking for a crowd, and the below all have room for at least a 12-inch pizza. Finally, decide if you want a portable pizza oven or one that can stay put.
How We Test Pizza Ovens
Because only the most superior pizza ovens will do, our expert cooked a classic margherita, a pepperoni pizza and a vegan pizza in a range of pizza ovens, and then used the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana's (aka The True Neapolitan Pizza Association) guide to assess whether they were the quality we’d expect.
We also assessed the design, heat-up times and how easy each pizza oven was to use, before selecting our winners.
This sleek, portable pizza oven nabbed top spot thanks to its intuitive design that makes everything from set-up to serving effortless.
It took 14 minutes to get to temperature on test, peaking at 450 degrees, while flames roll across the oven’s roof to ensure even cooking. Our pizzas were ready to serve in under two minutes, with plump crusts and perfectly melted cheese. A must buy.
Key specifications
Fuel type: Gas (You can buy a wood box to convert it to a dual fuel oven)
Max temperature: 500 degrees
Temperature gauge: Yes
Dimensions: 41.3 W x 53.1 L x 47.3 H cm
Cooking area: 31.5 x 34 cm
Accessories included: Pizza peel, bottle opener
Ooni Karu 16
Ooni Karu 16
Bring a taste of Naples to your garden with the Ooni Karu – the first, and so far only, pizza oven to be endorsed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.
The duel-fuel design is large and most accessories, including the gas converter, must be bought separately. But it offers maximum cooking control, with a chimney to adjust air flow and a door to lock in heat. There’s ample space for rotating pizzas, too.
While we waited 20 minutes for it to get to temperature, once we started cooking, dinner was served in under one and a half minutes. And obviously (given its Italian seal of approval), the results were outstanding.
Key specifications
Fuel type: Gas and wood
Max temperature: 500 degrees
Temperature gauge: Yes
Dimensions: 50 W x 81 L x 83 H cm
Cooking area: 42.42 x 42.42 cm
Accessories included: None
Gozney Dome
Gozney Dome
Acres to play with? Then this restaurant-style pizza oven should take pride of place in your outdoor kitchen. Unsurprisingly, given its size, it takes a while to build and heat up (30 minutes on test), but it reached a blistering 500 degrees and our pizzas were ready in little over one minute.
There’s plenty of room to cook multiple pizzas and move them around the oven, and a built-in temperature gauge and accompanying meat probes ensure you can keep a close eye on your food. A true culinary delight, it can also smoke or cook meats.
Key specifications
Fuel type: Gas and wood
Max temperature: 500 degrees
Temperature gauge: Yes
Dimensions: 73.2 W x 63 L x 66 H cm
Cooking area: 55 W x 47 L
Accessories included: 2 x temperature probes. Note the stand and cover are sold separately
This is the pizza oven that’s all over Instagram and, trust us, it’s not just hype. Set up was seamless, as was moving it around the garden, and while there’s a certain knack to ignition, once mastered you’ll be plating up your pizzas in one and a half minutes.
Flames rolled across the roof for even coverage, resulting in airy yet beautifully charred crusts. Its shallow entrance makes moving pizza around slightly trickier, but its depth means you can slide pizza from hotter to colder spots for superb cooking control.
Key specifications
Fuel type: Gas
Max temperature: 500 degrees
Temperature gauge: No
Dimensions: 39 W x 62 L x 29 H cm
Cooking area: 33.7 x 33.7 cm
Accessories included: None no accessories or pizza peel are included either
Le Feu Turtle Gas Pizza Oven
Le Feu Turtle Gas Pizza Oven
This sleek design looks like its namesake, and we mean that in the best way. The smooth black dome will fit right in with any outdoor kitchen aesthetics.
It’s got substance too; set up was simple, it ignited easily and was ready to cook in 17 minutes. It has a shallow entrance, so manoeuvring your food is a skill you’ll need to master, but conquer that and quality pizzas await.
Key specifications
Fuel type: Gas
Max temperature: 400 degrees
Temperature gauge: No
Dimensions: 50 W x 50 L x 25 H cm
Cooking area: Accommodates 35cm pizzas
Accessories included: None
Vango Camp Chef Pizza Oven
Vango Camp Chef Pizza Oven
Heading out on the open road? Take your pizza oven with you. This portable model, used with the Vango Camp Chef Pro 30 Stove, may just be the talk of the campsite.
Set-up took some playing around and it’s not the quickest to heat up or use – on test it took 20 minutes to get to temperature, followed by another 9 to cook – but given you’re cooking over a stove, that’s understandable.
We suggest you put your feet up, open a cold one and before you know it, you’ll be tucking into pizzas with crispy bases and deliciously cooked toppings.
Key specifications
Fuel type: Gas
Max temperature: 370 degrees
Temperature gauge: Yes
Dimensions: 34 W x 45 L x 10 H cm
Cooking area: Accommodates 30cm pizzas
Accessories included: None
Sage Pizzaiolo Smart Pizza Oven
We all know you can’t rely on the British weather, which is why this indoor pizza oven from Sage might be a safer bet. This machine can whip up everything from New York-style pizza to deep pan to a classic Neapolitan in the warmth of your kitchen.
It was the simplest to use and it heated up in a similar time to the outdoor models we tested, but cooking did take longer, averaging at just over two minutes. Our pizzas were well worth the wait though.
Key specifications
Fuel type: Electric
Max temperature: 400 degrees
Temperature gauge: A dial that allows you to select the temperature or you can use one of its 7 preset modes
Dimensions: 47 W x 46.1 L x 27 H cm
Cooking area: Accommodates 30cm pizzas
Accessories included: Peel and pan
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