With warm weather finally making an appearance, it’s time to start thinking about eating outdoors. And there’s no better way to cook alfresco than with the best pizza ovens. They’re one of the most sought-after pieces of outdoor cooking kit, promising restaurant-quality results at home.
The best pizza ovens are designed to reach higher temperatures than conventional ovens, enabling you to cook pizzas quickly while still getting that crisp base and blistered crust that’s hard to replicate indoors. Whether you’re a casual cook who enjoys regular pizza nights or a serious home chef looking for the authentic Neapolitan finish, the right oven can make all the difference.
The Gozney Arc Lite is an absolute joy to use and the best pizza oven for outdoor cooking that I’ve tried. It’s a gas pizza oven with a lateral flame, which means it rolls across the top of the oven and distributes heat more evenly to produce a flame-finished pizza. Performance wise, it excels and I found it heated up and cooked pizza quickly, with a 12in Neapolitan ready in around two minutes.
You’ll need to rotate the pizza, but not having a door on the front means it’s easy to monitor and the design of the flame means you only need to turn it once. The pizza came out seriously good, the cheese was bubbling and the crust was crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside. It also held its temperature well, so I was able to do multiple pizzas in a row without having to wait an age for it to heat back up to full temperature.
The compact pizza oven looks even smaller than it is, thanks to the sleek domed design. And I say small, but it does have the capacity to cook a 12in pizza, which is plenty for home cooks. There are no real major downsides to this pizza oven. There’s no temperature gauge so you will need to invest in an external thermometer if you want more accurate results, but Gozney also sells a range of accessories, so you can get everything in a bundle when you order.
If you don’t have the room for a large pizza oven, but you still want a premium product then this is one of the best practical pizza ovens for everyday use.
