7 Best Home Pizza Ovens For Restaurant Quality Pies

The Most

A perfect pizza dough requires a professional oven that is fit for the purpose

Production efficiency, consistently uniform cooking, ease of management and a refined design are just some of the promises that a good pizza oven must know how to keep in order to be defined as such.

There are various types of professional ovens which, when purchasing, must be chosen on the basis of the needs of each pizza maker and vary according to the destination and the type of use to be made.

For example, those who bake pizzas from a Food Truck will need a tool that is light, compact and capable of responding well to the vibrations of the road.

On the other hand, those who work in a restaurant kitchen may need a versatile tool capable of cooking pizzas to perfection, but which, if necessary, can also grill, stew and roast the various dishes on the menu.

Regardless of the type of activity, however, a professional oven must guarantee perfect results and facilitate the work of all the staff.

So, how do we go about choosing the perfect professional oven for our business? Let’s find out!

This article contains:

What features must a good professional oven have?
Lightness
2.   Innovative insulation and technology
3.   Ease of installation and movement
4.   Low fuel consumption
5.   Sophisticated design
How much does a restaurant oven cost?
The professional oven to choose based on the type of kitchen

Which are the best professional pizza ovens?

Commercial pizza ovens are a great way to make perfectly baked pizzas in large quantities quickly

Image credit: Shutterstock/Siamionau Pavel

Commercial pizza ovens bake pizzas differently from traditional ovens and are known to provide a much more flavorful experience. Having said that, brick pizza ovens, in turn, also bake pizzas differently than convection pizza ovens do. Each pizza baking method gives pizza a different taste, and many food establishments pride themselves on their own personalized way of baking their pizzas (which is why you’ll often find wording such as “wood-fired” or “brick-oven” in many pizza company names).

In addition to the flavor, pizza ovens provide an ambient setting and can add a nice warm touch to your business’ environment if placed within customers’ view. There are many benefits to owning a good pizza oven, and there is an array of them to suit various styles, budgets, and needs.

If you’re as yet undecided on the best commercial oven for making pizza for your business (or if you know which style you want and you need a list of the best commercial pizza ovens on the market), our buying guide below, as well as our top picks of some of the best models around that are available to buy now, will aid you in your selection.

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Coolest Pizza Oven

Tierra Firme Tile Pizza Oven

Just a beautiful pizza oven, a real conversation starter
Simple to set up and use

Cons

But on the plus side, the best pizzas are made in wood fired clay ovens, and this little one will set you back less than $500. And did we mention how cool it looks?!

Most Professional Pizza Oven

Gozney Dual Fuel Pizza Oven

Large cooking surface, can cook a 16-inch pie
Great heat retention
Versatile

You can just look at this dual fuel model from Gozney and see it means the most business. It’s the biggest option on this list, allowing you to make restaurant-sized pies. And the big ceramic coated interior functions just as well as a brick oven.

This one has some added versatility with an easy read thermostat, and the ability to function as a regular outdoor oven. So you could, hypothetically, drop the temp way down and cook a pork shoulder low-and-slow.

Best Looking Pizza Oven

Solo Stove Pi Starter Bundle

Now 36% Off

Pros

All necessary attachments included
Sleek design
Wood and gas burning

Little secret, the makers of the hottest fire pit of the moment also make a great pizza oven starter kit. It burns wood when you want to do the whole thing, and gas when you’re strapped for time, both with great results. The sleek, round stainless steel design will look great with any outdoor setup, and the kit gives you everything you’ll need to cook.

Best Indoor Pizza Oven

Breville Pizzaiolo Pizza Oven

Now 33% Off

Perfect for indoor use
Easy to use electric set up
Sizable viewing window

Perfect for if you’re truly stuck in an apartment, or just want to cook pizzas indoors on rainy, cold, or otherwise miserable days. Fire this lil thing up without the worry of setting off any smoke alarms. It gets up to a respectable 750°F, enough to get that charring and blistering. Serious insulation keeps all that heat inside. And, best of all, it doesn’t look too bad, so you can leave it out on the countertop.

Best Pizza Oven Starter Kit

Ooni Karu 16 Essentials Bundle

Wood or gas fire
Can cook larger 16-inch pies
One of the easiest to use

Ooni is here twice, because the brand really does make the easiest pizza ovens around. One of the main reasons is the big, hinged doors on the front of their ovens. The door window lets you see what’s going on without leaking heat, but once you open it, you get a considerable amount of space to pull that pie out. It makes the whole experience a lot easier, avoiding any first time mistakes.

Best Value Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel

Now 17% Off

Portable
Wood burning
With gas, it reaches 950°F in 15 minutes

Ooni’s Karu 12 is the brand’s smallest wood burning model, and it’s a bit of a revolution on that front. Opposed to the Solo Stove, Gozney, and other Ooni wood burning models on this list, this thing is a fraction of the size. It’s only 26.5 lbs, and it carries easily with the Karu 12 case. The case is sold separately, but it’s only $40—not an issue at all.

The only slight drawback is that if you ever want to have the ease of gas-fired pies, that attachment costs $100. Not a fortune, but factoring in an extra $140 for the case and gas attachment is annoying nonetheless.

Best Portable Pizza Oven

Vevor Gas Outdoor Pizza Oven

Easy to use gas flame
Packs up into a neat square
Lightweight

If you’re trapped in an apartment but desperately need to make your own pizza, Vevor’s gas model is the way to go. Gas-only means it’s easy to use, and since it doesn’t have a big chimney like other models, it packs into a neat little case that’s easy to carry. Take it on the train to a park, or walk out to your apartment common space. The barrier of entry with this one is almost nonexistent.

Things to Consider When Buying a Pizza Oven

Temperature Capability: A pizza oven should at least reach around 700°F, as anything lower will give you difficulty in getting that perfect char. But most options exceed that, normally getting up to around 900°F, and that’s where you’ll get the best results.
Fuel: Typically it’ll be gas, wood, or both. Gas is a lot easier to start and control. Wood is the undeniably classic way, which many people prefer. Then, there’s the occasional electric option—always reserved for indoor pizza ovens.
Indoor or Outdoor: The reality is, most pizza ovens are going to be outdoor only. In restaurants, they have a chimney that fully exits the building, which is just not a feature in modern homes. The only way to have an indoor pizza oven is to go with an electric model like the Breville Pizzaiolo. But if you have a covered open air space, like a screened in porch, a gas option would be fine. Only use wood burning if you’re fully outdoors.
Attachments: This can be a big one. If you’re lugging this pizza oven to a campsite or friend’s crib, you want it to have some sort of carry case. And if you’ve never cooked pizza before, one that comes with a stone and peel (the big spatula-looking thing you take it out of the oven with) will be a good buy. Beyond that, most ovens, and all on this list, will have a stand that raises them off the surface they are on, so as to not scorch your picnic table or anything.

To make more than one pizza at a time in an affordable and durable unit, the Camp Chef Italian Artisan pizza oven is ideal. It is made from stainless steel and preheats and is ready to cook pizzas in 15 minutes.

Ideal for a small business trying to make and sell pizza pies, the Camp Chef pizza oven has a built-in temperature gauge to monitor internal air temperatures. The oven itself can reach high temperatures of 700°F and upwards.

One happy customer wrote, “I’m sure there are commercial units that cook faster, work better, etc., but for the price, this is an exceptional value, and we are glad we purchased it. At our last event, we made 200 pizzas in this oven over the course of four hours, and this little unit did a bang-up job.”

Weight: 47 pounds

Type: Countertop pizza oven

Material: Stainless steel pizza oven

Size: 30 x 19.5 x 18 inches

US$399. 99, Amazon

A commercial rotating pizza oven is the answer for anyone looking for a brick oven-style pizza but can’t find the skilled labor to run one.

It’s also to brick oven version of a conveyor oven. Employees can put the pizza in the oven, let it take one rotation through, and the pizza is done when it’s at the front of the oven again.

The oven works by having a rotating floor, but the shape and concepts are the same as a brick oven. Meaning it cooks using reflective, conduction, and convection heat. The heat hits the pizza from every angle as the floor spins, giving you a brick oven-style pizza without having to tend the pie during the entire cooking process.

It sounds pretty wild, but it creates a remarkably consistent pizza.

There are a couple of options for a fuel source.

You can use gas alone or a hybrid model that uses gas with either wood or wood pellets. The wood definitely adds to the heat but is more there to impart the traditional wood fire flavor that customers find so appealing.

Getting a hybrid model would mean you are using three different forms of energy. You’ll use gas and wood for cooking, but you’ll also need electricity to turn the rotating floor.

That being said, you aren’t locked into one fuel source. If wood is suddenly scarce, not in stock, or astronomically expensive, you can still cook pizzas using gas to get you through a bump in the road.

Another difference between a rotating wood fire oven and a traditional wood fire oven is there should be a catch for the ashes.

Because of the gap between the rotating floor and the fixed body of the oven, it would be difficult to clean out the ashes through the front hole. The rotating oven should have a catch below that traps any debris falling from the oven.

All rotating ovens should have custom controls for rotation speed and temperature.

Marana Forni was the company to create and patent the first commercial rotating pizza oven. Their ovens come in many styles, with many options, including hybrid models and fixed pizza ovens as well.

If you’re interested in a rotating pizza oven, these guys don’t cut any corners and are passionate about delivering the best pizza ovens in the world.

Best Double Deck Commercial Pizza Ovens—Waring WPO350 Countertop Double Deck Pizza Oven

If you want to bake pizza for a group of people but don’t have much kitchen space, the WPO350 commercial double deck pizza oven can cook two 14-inch pizzas in its two handy baking chambers. This commercial pizza double-door oven is suitable for most kitchen countertops, measuring just 23 inches wide by 18 inches deep.

It can also be lowered with its convenient adjustable legs to make sure that you can squeeze it in even the tightest spots and still be able to make the perfect pizza. The temperature range is adjustable with mechanical dials that can set the temperatures between 280-600°F.

One happy customer wrote of this pizza oven, “I love having two decks with two doors. It helps keep the heat where it belongs. I really like the light, and it’s easy to check the pizza without having to do anything.”

Weight: 100 pounds

Size: 23 x 18 x 19.75 inches

US$1,945. 99, Katom

Bake pizzas with this pizza oven by Ooni in record time and with ease. As far as commercial pizza ovens go, the Ooni Karu 12 is a highly-rated commercial oven that performs well in food trucks and also for home entertainment.

The Ooni gas pizza oven has a built-in ignition and fires up in 15 minutes, and cooks pizzas at the simple turn of a dial. Perfect for outdoor spaces, the Ooni requires no assembly, and heats to temperatures of 950°F.

Weight: 29 pounds

Type: Outdoor gas stone-baked pizza oven

Material: Insulated steel shell

Size: 15.7 x 11.6 x 24.8 inches

US$399, Amazon

Thanks to their lightness and extremely compact dimensions, modern professional ovens are able to adapt to any type of kitchen and need.

Not just traditional pizzerias and restaurants, therefore, but also:

Food Truck
Outdoor areas
Cooking shows

Each of these kitchens requires an oven with different production capacity and characteristics.

For example, a business activity on wheels will need a light professional oven, but at the same time robust, able to withstand road vibrations, without risking weighing down the vehicle down.

The Alfa Pro line professional wood-fired and gas-fired pizza ovens are specifically designed to meet the needs of those who have a Food Truck and want to contain gas and wood fuel consumption.

An example is the Quattro Pro Top by Alfa Pro model which is a compact, light and practical professional pizza oven, perfect for installing on a Food Truck or for anyone with a catering business.

This instrument can churn out 3 to 4 pizzas at a time, reaches 450° C in just 30 minutes and is perfect for those looking for an efficient instrument, since it has low running costs as it consumes only 4.5 kg of wood per hour.

Mobile solutions, on the other hand, are the ideal solution for those who have an outdoor space such as a terrace or garden that they intend to use during the warmer months.

In fact, thanks to the wheels, Alfa Pro ovens can be easily moved from indoors to outdoors, not to mention that the stainless steel structure with 7 layers of powder paint is extremely resistant to weather conditions.

The lighter and more compact professional ovens are also ideal for those who want to entertain their customers by organizing cooking show evenings where the pizza chefs can be admired as they work.

The Alfa Pro professional ovens, thanks to CompactFlame technology, which allows you to have a pizza oven with a real flame even in limited spaces, are ideal for offering this type of show.

Finally, for classic venues, Alfa has studied a traditional line designed for those who want a timeless design for their business, without sacrificing innovation and technology.

An example is the professional pizza oven Napoli, built entirely by hand in Italy with refractory terracotta materials produced directly by Alfa; it represents a small masterpiece of craftsmanship ready for use.

Commercial Countertop Pizza Oven

The most obvious benefit of a countertop pizza oven is its compact size and ability to do the same task as a large pizza oven but at a lower volume.

Countertop pizza ovens come in deck oven or conveyor oven models, and they will run on either natural gas or electricity. Each one has the advantages of the larger ovens but takes up a fraction of the space.

A lot of restaurants might consider using one of these ovens when pizza isn’t the focus of the menu. Maybe you also serve sandwiches, pasta, and larger entrees, but pizza is a small portion of the menu, or maybe it’s only offered during happy hour.

Countertop pizza ovens are very affordable, so if you’re trying to offer more crowd favorites and are looking to expand your menu, a countertop pizza oven allows your guests to eat pizza without the heavy bill of a full-sized oven.

Employees will find countertop pizza ovens extremely easy to use, and training will only take minutes. Some ovens come with timers, so employees don’t need to guess when a pizza is done. The timer helps during the early phases of learning how to use the oven.

Bringing a countertop pizza oven into the kitchen could mean expanding the menu to other items as well since each oven can cook more than just pizza.

Countertop pizza ovens are also ventless so you don’t need to worry about an expensive hood system.

The Avantco double-decker oven with glass doors is super heavy duty and a great example of what a countertop oven can do. It’s compact, easy to use, affordable, and a great asset to any kitchen.

It has an impressive temperature range, going as high as 840 degrees. The heating element spans the whole interior of the oven, so you don’t need to rotate the pizza as it cooks.

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Commercial Outdoor Pizza Oven

The only thing better than cooking pizza is cooking pizza outdoors. It puts an energy and excitement into the air that can’t be duplicated with other outdoor cooking.

When using an outdoor pizza oven, you’ll use wood fire, natural gas, or propane as a fuel source. Electric ovens aren’t very common since they live outside.

An outdoor pizza oven can be great for restaurants that have a large patio, especially if that patio is only open during the summer. People love to smell the pizza while sitting outside, which alleviates pressure on the kitchen inside, whose workload can double when the patio opens for summer.

Another great application for an outdoor pizza oven is with a food truck. Taking your oven with all your restaurant supplies down to the farmer’s market, local game, or town event means an automatic line for your food truck. People smell it before they see it and will gladly wait to get a pie.

Most outdoor pizza ovens will be made of stainless steel or come in one of the wide varieties of wood fire ovens, typically made from refractory brick and concrete.

Outdoor pizza ovens are more than anything about creating an experience. It’s not very common to see people cooking pizza outdoors, but when they do, everyone wants to participate in the fun.

The WPPO outdoor pizza oven covered in mosaic tiles will look great in any outdoor area while cranking out pizza and other dishes throughout a busy weekend on the patio.

This model is wood fired, but it comes with a convection fan to help speed the cooking process and keep oxygen flowing to the fire.

Small Commercial Pizza Oven

Small pizza ovens mean anyone can get a slice of the pizza industry.

Small pizza ovens are great for concession stands, cafes, food trucks, sandwich shops, and restaurants looking to serve pizza, but in a smaller size, like for happy hour.

Small ovens are also great for other foods as well, like toasting sandwiches, melting cheese, or cooking breadsticks.

Small pizza ovens come in all types—wood fired, natural gas, propane, deck oven, conveyor, outdoor, and electrical.

You might not be able to produce the high volume of a larger oven, but if you find that your pizza is really popular, you can always upgrade.

If you want to serve great pizza, I guarantee there’s an oven out there that will serve your needs.

The Bakers Pride single deck oven is the perfect small pizza oven. It’s compact enough to fit in most kitchens, and because of the cooking chamber height, you can cook more than just pizza.

Bakers Pride installed a continuous ringing bell that goes off when the timer is up. An employee then needs to manually turn it off, reminding them to pull the pizza out of the oven. They did this to help eliminate burnt pizzas by workers who forgot a pizza was in the oven.

Bakers Pride built the interior with a Cordierite stone deck and aluminized steel baking chamber to handle the high heat of 550 degrees.

Our Products

The Rotator

Maximize efficiency with our rotating pizza ovens. Bake perfect pizzas and other dishes every time with ease. Ideal for pizzerias, restaurants, and catering. Available in gas and wood-fired configurations.

The Neapolitan

The “Classic” Neapolitan pizza oven for static & mobile applications. Available in electric, gas and wood-fired configurations. The best pizza oven for a professional Pizzaioli.

The Electric

Upgrade your kitchen with our traditional or industrial electric pizza ovens with top & bottom heat controls & temp up to 1000℉. Super efficient and east-to-use.

Mobile Pizza Ovens

Elevate your business with our mobile pizza ovens. Increase revenue and customer loyalty with delicious wood-fired pizza. Ideal for food trucks, catering, and events.

Due Bocche

Double your output and serve customers with ease. The benefits of the Rotating pizza ovens in a Pass-Thru configuration to comply two chefs. Ideal for the busiest restaurant environments.

Bake the perfect pizza with Marra Forni’s products that support our world class commercial oven cooking. From peels to slicers, our products are made to last.

The ideal brick oven for high-performance, efficiency, with minimal learning curve.

The “Classic” brick oven for static & mobile applications. Available in wood and gas.

Mobile Trailers

For operators seeking to establish or expand their current business model.

Traditional or industrial ovens with top & bottom heat controls & temp up to 1000℉.

The benefits of Rotator ovens in a Pass-Thru configuration to comply two chefs.

Customizable

Each business has its own needs based on the space available, the presence or absence of a flue, the style of the restaurant or the type of pizza and products that it intends to offer to its customers.

The first thing to take into consideration, therefore, is certainly the type of fuel you intend to use to fuel your professional oven.

According to the type of fuel supply, we can distinguish between:

Wood-burning oven
Gas oven
Hybrid oven
Electric oven

Each of these types, exploiting different fuels, consequently has different characteristics.

For example, a wood-burning oven is probably the most challenging to manage, but it manages to give the dishes that unmistakable aroma of wood, especially with long cooked dishes, as well as being particularly attractive for those who organize cooking show evenings.

Where as an electric oven and gas oven are undoubtedly easier to manage, thanks to the automatic temperature control and ease of cleaning.

In order to choose the type of fuel supply that best suits your needs, it is useful to identify the connections that are already available in your kitchen and consider the intended use of the oven.

A solution for those who cannot choose between the charm of wood and the practicality of gas is offered by dual-fuel ovens.

Precisely for this reason, Alfa Forni has developed a particular technology that allows you to use a gas oven as if it were a wood oven, thus allowing to choose from time to time the fuel to be used according to the needs of the moment or the dish to be cooked.

We are talking about the Kit Hybrid, thanks to which it is possible to place a special lid over the gas burner.

However, in addition to the type of fuel supply, it is also useful to consider other characteristics when choosing the best professional oven for your needs, such as:

Lightness
Innovative insulation and technology
Ease of installation and movement
Low fuel consumption
Sophisticated design

Let’s see these features in detail.

Lightness

Often the space available is one of the main problems both in traditional kitchens and for Food Trucks where a pizza oven is usually one of the most bulky tools.

Modern professional ovens, however, are capable of solving this problem by combining small dimensions and lightness with great performance.

Thanks to CompactFlame technology, Alfa Pro professional ovens ensure maximum production capacity in the smallest possible space, representing the ideal solution for dehors, outdoor living and open spaces.

Suffice it to say that the smaller models weigh only 195 kg and measure only 90 cm in depth.

Innovative insulation and technology

The best professional wood and gas ovens must be able to offer excellent performance, keep fuel consumption low and last over time.

This is why they must be made with top quality materials and cutting-edge technology.

Alfa Pro ovens are built with a particular insulation that uses three layers of ceramic fibre and one layer of Gasbeton, an innovative, resistant and insulating material: this allows the temperature to rise very quickly without having external overheating problems.

Furthermore, thanks to Forninox technology™, which combines AISI 304 stainless steel properties with those of refractory bricks, Alfa Pro professional pizza ovens are able to be light, easy to handle and reach operating temperature in just 30 minutes.

The materials used to make the oven and the technology used allow Alfa Pro professional ovens to guarantee perfect cooking results, maximum energy efficiency and reduced consumption.

Ease of installation and movement

Another feature to consider when choosing a professional oven concerns the ease of installation and manoeuvrability of the instrument, that is, the ability to easily move it from one setting to another.

Alfa Pro professional ovens do not require special installation and positioning, as each model can be easily moved, consistently guaranteeing high cooking performance.

This feature makes this type of oven extremely versatile for those who want to take advantage of outdoor spaces during the summer.

The mobility of a professional oven, therefore, proves to be a particularly interesting feature for all the pizzerias that in addition to having a restaurant, also have a Food Truck for participating at events and demonstrations or for those activities that organize cooking show evenings.

Low fuel consumption

Never before has it been so essential to keep your oven’s fuel consumption low to make ends meet each month.

This is why it is necessary, during the purchasing phase, to choose a professional oven that has been designed and built with the highest quality materials while using cutting-edge technology: this is the only way can you be sure of being able to cut costs related to your oven’s wood, electricity or gas consumption.

Forninox ™ technology allows Alfa Pro to create professional pizza ovens that accumulate heat very quickly, thanks to the dome made with a thick sheet of stainless steel.

It heats up much faster than the refractory bricks thus allowing the oven to be ready to cook a pizza in just a few minutes.

So, how much does a professional oven consume? Alfa Pro professional ovens can reach 500° C in just 30 minutes and cook up to 8 pizzas in about 90 seconds with a consumption of only 4 kg of wood/h and 2 kg of gas/h, allowing for significant savings in terms of both time and money.

Sophisticated design

Aesthetics too are fundamental, especially if the kitchen is visible. A professional oven becomes the focal point of the room, representing a true piece of furniture.

Hence, the more or less rigorous lines must be designed to be coordinated with other appliances and to integrate elegantly into the environment.

In a good professional pizza oven, the choice of external materials and the quality of the internal components must ensure functionality, sturdiness and attention to appearance.

Customers want to eat well, but also enjoy a unique and pleasant experience in a well-defined and welcoming environment where the gestures of the pizza chef are highlighted and framed by the sophisticated design of the oven.

Commercial Conveyor Pizza Oven

Conveyor pizza ovens are built for volume, efficiency, and consistency.

Conveyor ovens work using a steel mesh belt (like a conveyor belt, but metal) that is made into a loop to travel through the oven in a continuous cycle.

Because the speed and oven temperature controls are adjustable, all you need to do is find the balance between belt speed and the degree of the oven to have a perfectly cooked pizza roll out of the opposite end.

Unskilled labor can easily use these ovens since it only requires the pizza to be built and put in one end of the oven.

Another employee will be stationed at the other end of the oven to receive the pizza (place a stainless steel table at this end to catch any unattended pizzas), cut it into the desired number of slices, and put it in a box or on a tray.

Chain restaurants like Pizza Hut and Dominos use these ovens at all their locations. They are reliable and simple.

Pizzerias with a smaller footprint but want a conveyor pizza oven should know that the ovens come in stackable forms. Meaning as many as three conveyors are built into one unit.

You’ll be able to handle the high volume of a larger oven while, at the same time, taking up much less space.

An added benefit of stacked ovens is if different food items require different cooking times, you can control the speed of the belts. If a few items require more oven time, you can slow down one of the belts to hold it in the oven for the time necessary to cook.

Some conveyor pizza ovens come with impingement cooking. The idea is the same as convection ovens but imagine a more intense version.

Air is moved around the oven to break up the pizza’s cold barrier (cold halo). The difference with impingement cooking is that air is aimed directly at and into the pizza at a much higher volume, resulting in a pizza cooked in a very short time.

Conveyors will be either a gas pizza oven or run on electricity.

The Lincoln Triple Conveyor Impingement pizza oven is an excellent oven for any pizzeria looking to grow and needs to lean on the simplicity and consistency a conveyor pizza oven provides.

Three ovens mean you can handle busy weekends, and as your business grows, you’ll be able to take advantage of the high volume capacity this oven can handle.

Pizza Marketing

Hopefully this guide to commercial pizza ovens was helpful for you.

Once you have the right oven or ovens in place, you’re ready to make the pizza itself.

Selling the pizza is another story.

For help with that, check out our in-depth guide to pizza marketing.

Commercial Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Wood fired pizza ovens are all the rage right now.

There’s no mistaking the smell of a wood fired oven when you walk into a restaurant, and because most of these ovens are built beautifully, owners want to showcase them by using an open kitchen.

Customers can walk by and see pizza cooks working the oven, and watch steaming hot pies being transferred from the oven to a cutting board using a long spatula-shaped tool called a peel.

This craze doesn’t mean you should go out and buy a wood fired pizza oven. All trends come and go, including pizza trends.

Remember when stuffed crust pizza came out in the 90s?

That stuff (pardon the pun) was everywhere.

Wood-burning ovens are very popular, but there are many factors to consider when buying one.

First, what kind of pizza are you serving?

Wood fired is perfect for Neopolitan-style pizza. With an ultra-thin crust in the center, the toppings are placed sparingly across the top, but the very edge of the pizza is left bare to puff up into a light and airy crust.

Wood fire ovens use extremely high heat, anywhere from 750 to over 900 degrees.

The cook time is very quick, sometimes less than two minutes—but the result is a light, chewy pizza that embodies a slight smokiness from the wood oven.

You’ll also need to consider that wood fire ovens produce fewer pizzas than a conveyor-style pizza oven.

The space is smaller and can’t duplicate the mechanical precision and efficiency of an electric conveyor pizza oven.

Because of this, the kind of pizzas you cook should cook quickly. I’d steer clear of Chicago deep dish pizza in wood fired ovens. They can take upwards of 28 minutes to cook

Wood fired pizza ovens mean that you need to hire skilled labor. It takes time to learn how to manage a high temperature of 750 degrees while spinning pies during food service on a busy weekend for hours and hours.

It takes the right kind of person to consistently turn out perfectly cooked pizzas through a busy service.

If you can’t find that person, your business will suffer from the low quality of pies.

Because your fuel is wood, you’ll need to ensure you have plenty on hand at all times. You don’t want to run out in the middle of service. Wood can take up a lot of space and be very expensive when it’s in short supply.

Be sure to buy a high-quality oven that is built well. There are three things to look for when purchasing your wood fired oven.

Dome shaped interior
Quality insulation
Appropriately sized cooking surface

A dome-shaped interior is essential because it’s the secret to how a wood fire oven works.

The fire is pushed either to the side or back of the oven. As the heat spreads, it makes the bottom surface of the oven exceptionally hot, cooking the pizzas from below (conduction heat).

The domed walls allow the flame’s heat to travel along the top and come down on the sides, creating a circular motion with the heat (convection heat).

Heat trapped in the body of the oven (reflective heat) is what cooks the top of the pizza, giving the crust that speckled texture we all look for when eating wood fire pizza.

Since wood fired ovens run at higher temperatures than other ovens, quality insulation helps to trap the heat inside the oven.

Poor insulation will result in lost heat which can give you sub-par pizzas, and you’ll burn through more wood trying to keep the oven hot, costing you a lot of money.

The oven needs to be made from materials that can withstand high heat, like refractory firebricks or refractory concrete. Some ovens are made from a combination of the two.

If you don’t want your oven to be hot to the touch on the outside, you’ll need an added third layer of ceramic fiber insulation.

We’ve already covered this some, but your wood fire oven needs to match the size of your restaurant. You can’t have people waiting too long for pizza.

I recently went to a wood fired pizzeria, and it was some of the best I’ve ever tasted. The problem was that it took over an hour to get two fourteen-inch pizzas.

The owners had converted an old church and its outdoor space into a pizzeria. Their little oven couldn’t keep up with the capacity of their dining room.

We like Mugnaini ovens because of their stellar reputation and ability to perform. They also offer a wide range of sizes, so you’ll be able to find an oven that is proportionate to your restaurant’s needs.

Vuoi scoprire qual è il forno più adatto alle tue esigenze?

How To Choose The Right Oven

There are four major factors to consider before you buy your pizza oven.

How many pizzas do you make per day?
How big is your restaurant’s kitchen?
What style of pizza do you offer?
What is your fuel source?

Some of these may seem obvious, but it’s worth looking closely at these questions.

Your pizza oven is the heart of your restaurant, and making an investment of this size should be looked at from every angle.

How many pizzas do you make per day?

Not only do you want to consider how many pizzas you make per day, but let’s dream big and think about how many pizzas you want to crank out if you’re insanely busy every day.

It might take a minute for business to trickle in when you first open, but once it’s go time, you’ll need your oven to handle large numbers and not let you down.

Granted, having a pizza oven that can’t handle the current volume of business is a wonderful problem to have, but you don’t want to close for the day or two it takes to switch out your oven at the height of popularity.

How big is your restaurant’s kitchen?

The footprint of your kitchen is a big deal.

You need to strike a balance between having an oven big enough to handle a busy Friday night while at the same time leaving room for your employees to do their job.

You’ll also need room for refrigerators, a pizza-making station, a cutting station, and a place to store a large number of folded to-go pizza boxes.

One of my favorite pizza spots only does pies to go. Looking through their little window, I can see that the oven takes up over half the space of the kitchen.

It’s a tight squeeze, but due to popularity, they need that big oven. Employees get the job done, but the crew works in a tight submarine-like workspace.

What style of pizza do you offer?

There are many styles of pizza offered in the US, and depending on which pizza you offer, you’ll need an oven that can help you create it to your customer’s expectations.

You can cook Neopolitan pizza in a conveyor pizza oven, but the quality and experience will be dramatically different from the pizza that’s cooked traditionally in a wood fired oven.

Look closely at the details we cover in the next section, and buy the oven that best fits the style of pizza you’re selling.

The right oven will give you a better, more authentic pizza.

What is your fuel source?

Pizza ovens run on propane or natural gas, electricity, wood, or coal. Some ovens can be a hybrid or a combination of two sources.

For example, wood fire ovens can have a gas assist set in place if the oven isn’t staying hot enough from the wood fire alone to cook the pizzas properly.

This means that a high BTU burner is placed underneath the oven’s cooking surface and will kick on whenever the thermostat drops below the ideal cooking temperature.

Your budget can determine your fuel source as well. Buying wood or coal every week can become incredibly expensive, and the price can fluctuate with the seasons and availability.

You can save money by buying from a local wood dealer, but then you’re at the mercy of their wood quality. Any wood you buy needs to be cut and cured—meaning the cut wood has had time to sit and dry out.

Wet wood won’t burn.

Each commercial pizza oven has a specific fuel source, but to fully understand which oven will best fit your pizzeria’s needs, we need to look at the details of what each oven has to offer.

Now that we have covered the different types of pizza ovens and the best way to choose an oven, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details of each oven so you can make the most informed decision possible when buying the a new commercial kitchen pizza oven.

Best Premium Commercial Pizza Oven—ilFornino Professional Plus Wood Fired Pizza Oven

The ilFornino Professional Plus wood-fired pizza oven is a premium commercial pizza oven that cooks on one flat surface that can be adjusted to give personal comfort when baking.

This commercial pizza oven has two heavy-duty ceramic insulation blankets layered between the double wall of the stainless steel dome. It also has a third layer of ceramic insulation, creating a ceramic oven for added heat retention and optimal cooking temperature.

One reviewer wrote, “I’ve been extremely impressed by the build quality and the ability to reach high temperatures. Have cooked dozens of pizzas and also steak, shrimp, and all kinds of vegetables flawlessly.”

Specifications

Weight: 280 pounds

Material: Heavy gauge stainless steel commercial oven

Size: 44 x 31 x 51 inches

US$3,195, Amazon

There are several kinds of ovens that fall under the category of electric pizza ovens.

We’ll look at a few of these more closely below, but what we want to cover here is the versatility, convenience, and affordability of electric pizza ovens.

Electric ovens give you a precision of temperature that you won’t find in a wood fire oven. You’ll have a temperature dial or button to pick your degree, and then you can forget about it.

It also doesn’t require fuel storage as you need with a wood fire oven, so you’ll save a lot of space, which comes at a premium in any restaurant.

Electric ovens are very affordable, easy to clean, and easy to maintain cooking equipment. They aren’t complicated and can be run anywhere there is an electrical outlet.

Some can be placed on countertops or taken with you along with all your other restaurant equipment if there’s an outdoor event. You’ll just need to get an extension cord to power it up.

We like the Waring double-deck pizza oven because of its compact size and ability to cook multiple pizzas at once. It can be placed on a countertop in the kitchen without taking up too much workspace.

The Waring pizza oven would be a great fit for kitchens that offer pizza, but it’s not the menu’s focal point.

Best Countertop Convection Commercial Pizza Oven—Waring Half Size Pan Convection Oven

For a convection pizza oven with roast, bake, and broil functions, the Waring half-size pan convection oven has built a good reputation with reviewers. It’s a heavy-duty oven, brushed with stainless steel, and has a double-pane, tempered glass door.

One thrilled customer wrote, “Put it on a stainless steel table in your kitchen, commercial setting, set at desired temperature, and roll all day.”

Another reviewer commented, “A great value commercial countertop convection pizza oven. I use this in my restaurant, and I run it eight hours straight, seven days a week.”

Weight: 52.6 pounds

Material: Alloy steel pizza oven

Size: 1/2 sheet pan

US$795, Amazon

With a pre-heat time of seven minutes, deck ovens like the Nemco 6215 single deck pizza oven can bake frozen pizza in 10 minutes. This countertop pizza oven has a fixed thermostat and maintains high temperatures of 450°F.

It maintains an even cooking temperature due to the tubular heating elements on the top and bottom cabinet, has a 15-minute timer, and includes a crumb tray to catch any food or debris. One happy reviewer wrote, “Used ovens at a pizza show, and this oven kept up with traffic flow. For the size of the oven, it cooked a pizza in 10 minutes.”

Weight: 23 pounds

Size: 13.5 inch x 13 ⅝-inch rack

US$681, Katom

There are a few things to keep in mind when on the lookout to buy the best commercial pizza oven for your needs, including the types available, the various functions, and some considerations to be aware of.

Pizza Oven Types

If the only thing you know about a pizza oven is that it cooks pizzas, have a look at our brief guide to the different types of commercial pizza ovens below: brick ovens, deck ovens, countertop ovens, conveyor ovens, and wood-burning ovens.

Countertop Pizza Ovens

Countertop pizza ovens circulate hot air around the pizza to help cook all sides evenly. This type of oven is not just for small restaurants and food trucks; these countertop or convection oven styles are also suitable for making restaurant-style pizza at home, and some can also be used as a toasting oven and for other uses such as roasting meat and for baking breakfast foods.

Deck Ovens

A deck pizza oven is a heavy-duty commercial pizza oven that cooks pizza in a fast time by using electricity or gas to produce power. These pizza deck ovens last decades and are perfect for medium-sized food establishments. They are typically available as single or double-deck ovens.

Brick Pizza Ovens

A brick pizza baking oven works by burning wood and cooking a pizza slowly. This way of baking pizza gives that perfect smoky flavor. Pizzerias or restaurants will often use this brick pizza oven style too.

Conveyor Ovens

A conveyor belt oven system is one of the most popular pizza ovens used in large pizza establishments. These conveyor ovens are well-known for their ability to cook pizzas in batches, cooking them as they move through the heated chamber. In this way, they are able to cook them quickly and within a specific time frame. The main components of the perfectly cooked pizza in these types of ovens are forced air, infrared heat, or radiant heat.

Wood Burning Ovens

Wood-burning pizza ovens, or dome ovens, work by burning wood to provide high levels of heat to cook pizza. Wood is lit on the side, center, or back of the oven, making the oven’s central dome—the area where the pizza will be cooked and collected by the pizza peel—have perfectly distributed heat.

Commercial Ovens for Pizza—Power

When choosing from the array of commercial pizza ovens available, having the correct power output will help in more ways than one; this helps with production efficiency and enables low-cost energy to be used to run the pizza ovens.

There are three different ways to power commercial pizza ovens: electricity, gas, and wood. There are also dual-fuel pizza oven options which can count as a fourth way. Deciding what fuel to use for your pizza oven will largely be based on the type of restaurant and space you have.

If the space already has gas in its kitchen, then you will likely want a gas machine that will be able to hook up to the gas line in order to save on expenses. However, wood-fired ovens are always popular if you are just starting out and want something more unique to draw in the customers.

Many who even have gas lines still opt for the wood-fired aspect over gas-powered ovens. Whereas fast-food places with high food output that require quicker cooking times will likely need gas or electric versions or converter belt ovens.

If the food establishment is run on high production and as the main food item on the menu, speedy pizza ovens are a must. For cafes and restaurants where pizza isn’t the main meal focus, it’s more efficient to choose the best commercial pizza ovens that are medium-powered.

Best Commercial Pizza Oven for Dual Fire Up—Roccbox Gozney Portable Outdoor Pizza Oven

Any food businesses with an outdoor area, or a food cart, will be able to make good use of this Roccbox Gozney portable outdoor pizza oven that can cook pizza in minutes, using either gas or traditional wood fire (though the wood burner is sold separately and costs around $100).

It can make delicious pizzas in minimal time as the oven heats up to a high temperature of over 932°F. The Roccbox comes with a professional-grade pizza peel, has an inbuilt thermometer, and retractable legs for easy portability and storage.

The pizzas can be charred with the open fire in 60 seconds, and one happy customer wrote, “The Roccbox reaches the advertised temperature and easily produces Neapolitan style pizza, one after the other.”

Weight: 62.7 pounds

Type: Portable outdoor pizza oven

Material: Commercial grade silicone

Size: 23.75 x 22.5 x 17.5 inches

US$499, Amazon

As the best stone-baked commercial pizza oven on our list, the Bakerstone portable gas pizza oven mimics a brick pizza oven, without the exposed flames, to create a traditional pizza crust and make a delicious pizza in minutes.

The Bakerstone pizza oven uses high temperatures that reach over 800°F to bake pizzas in a similar way to brick ovens (customers suggest making the Neapolitan pizza in it; an authentic Italian pizza recipe traditionally brick-oven baked).

It has a removable oven and a firebox with a regulator and folding legs for easy transportation from event to event. One happy customer wrote, “The pizza was made in less than two minutes and the best part was that it gets a little bit roasted at the top, giving the cheese the right crunchiness and a perfect look of a true artisanal stone baked pizza oven.”

Weight: 38.9 pounds

Type: Gas convection pizza oven

Material: Stainless steel gas pizza oven

BTUs: 25,000 BTU burner system

Size: 22.6 x 22.2 x 17.7 inches

US$250, Amazon

The best professional pizza ovens are light and compact in shape, offer excellent performance while having low fuel consumption and a refined and innovative design.

There is no best one in absolute terms, because as we have seen, each business has its own peculiarities and needs.

This is why Alfa Pro offers a wide range of professional solutions to meet everyone’s needs, consistently guaranteeing perfect cooking, reduced fuel consumption and an attractive design thanks to continuous innovation processes

Best 16-Inch Commercial Pizza Ovens—Wisco 561 Deluxe Pizza Oven

In addition to the ability to cook large 16-inch pizzas, the Wisco 561 Deluxe pizza and multipurpose commercial pizza oven also has other useful features such as a removable crumb tray to collect debris and help with cleaning.

There is also a flip-up handle for easy storage, a stainless steel outer layer, and an adjustable thermostat to help reach the desired temperature range using the LED display. The thermostat goes between 150–650°F, going up in 25°F increments.

Weight: 38.4 pounds

Size: 23.62 x 19.5 x 10.25 inches

US$438, Amazon

The answer to that is—it depends.

It depends on what kind of pizzeria or restaurant you operate.

Do you serve pizza only, with breadsticks and cheese sticks as appetizers, or do you offer a menu with fish, side dishes, and pasta as well?

There isn’t a hard and fast rule here.

But you can narrow down the best commercial pizza oven by asking yourself a few questions.

How much does a restaurant oven cost?

The price of a professional oven depends on several factors including the quality of the materials used, the technology implemented, the thermal efficiency and the size of the cooking chamber.

It is therefore difficult to answer this question unambiguously.

Numerous offers are available on the market, each with its own technical characteristics and capable of responding to the needs of different types of catering activities.

Nevertheless, if you buy a quality product, made in Italy with high construction standards, the price is unlikely to be too low, but you will have the certainty of using a reliable, high-performance tool that will repay the investment made over time.

This commercial conveyor pizza oven by Omcan can handle cooking thousands of pizzas in a year. The Omcan 11387 conveyor commercial pizza oven is a heavy-duty countertop conveyor oven that helps with saving cooking space and, although a compact model, easily gets the job done.

In addition to making pizza, the Omcan electric pizza oven is good for baking bread, garlic bread, bagels, and reheating pizza too. It’s a ventless convection oven with a 14-inch conveyor belt designed to accommodate small to medium toasting needs.

This conveyor oven helps keep temperatures consistent and uses built-in infrared heaters with variable speed and temperature controls. One happy customer wrote, “The first two of these ovens cracked out after 14 months; however, we are not complaining since we baked approximately 9,000–10,000 pizzas in that time.”

Weight: 61 pounds

Type: Electric conveyor oven

Size: 41 x 18.5 x 15.7 inches

US$1,435, Amazon

Owning a commercial pizza oven, whether it’s a double-deck pizza oven, a convection oven, an electric pizza oven, or a brick pizza oven, can provide many benefits to a business. A commercial pizza baking oven allows more surrounding cooking space to help with preparing pizzas, and the temperature range can be greater in commercial ovens than in using a traditional one.

A decent commercial pizza oven will also cook garlic bread and bake bread, and most pizza recipes can be cooked in an electric pizza oven, a brick pizza oven; some bake just pizzas and have a wide temperature range.

For a pizza oven that is well insulated and cooks on one flat surface, the ilFornino Professional Plus (US$3,195, Amazon) was praised by customers for its durability, build quality, and ability to cook dozens of pizzas, and other foods, including steak, and shrimp.