National Pizza Day: 7 best indoor pizza ovens for creating a slice of Italy at home

by Rosie Conroy Feb 09, 2022 5 minutes

Pizza must be one of the most popular foods in the entire world, and there’s something so undeniably appealing about a fresh pie being cooked in an outdoor pizza oven. But this is the UK and we have to be realistic, don’t we friends?

Weather-proof and speedy to heat, electric, indoor pizza ovens are akin to a gift from god when you want impressive homemade pizza in minutes and don’t fancy braving the elements.

These genius inventions range from mini countertop units to huge – nearly commercial – ovens that allow you to cook multiple pizzas at once, and give you the ability to carefully tweak the controls to get all sorts of different, nuanced results.

Some of the best indoor pizza ovens we tried gave us gorgeously charred patches on top (which could almost convince you they’d been made in a wood-fired oven) and perfectly crisp bottoms for that authentic base.

Our pursuit of the perfect indoor pizza oven knew no limits, so when we tested each of the below ovens we really put them through their paces.

Read more:

We made exactly the same sourdough pizzas in each, so as to be able to evenly compare the results and we looked at elements such as temperature, size, ease of use and any extras that might have been included.

While we don’t want to spoil the surprise, we did think there was a sweet spot between performance and price, with the middle range giving you exactly what you need from an indoor pizza oven, without having to spend too much.

Whatever toppings or flavour combinations you choose one of these gadgets is bound to give you the pizza of your dreams. Buon appetito!

Optima Pizza Express Napoli pizza oven

Small enough to pack away into a cupboard, this dinky pizza oven represents fantastic value for money. With no setup necessary you simply plug this device into the wall, wait for it to heat up and away you go. While pizzas may take four to five minutes, for the average household that isn’t a problem and thanks to the snug size, the bottom and top cook evenly and in unison. You’ll have to wait for the pizza oven to heat up again for a couple of minutes in between uses, but this didn’t prove a problem in our experience (you need time to eat some pizza in between chef shifts after all).

Care should be taken though when handling, as burns are easily won from steam escaping under the lid as you lift it. The accompanying wooden half moons allow you to build a pizza on top of them, and then easily pull them apart to drop it onto the stone, which we thought was much easier than using a traditional paddle.

Buy now £169.00, Pizzaunited.co.uk

Sage the smart oven pizzaiolo

While this machine wasn’t the largest of the indoor pizza ovens we tested, it was still pretty bulky. Once unwrapped it’s easily maneuvered by one person but even so would suit larger kitchens best. The included instructions are clear, giving you loads of different options for varying results – from deep dish pies through to crisp-bottomed Neapolitan style pizza, and the accompanying pizza paddle is a fun (and necessary!) extra which makes you feel like a professional wielding your dough.

Inside there are heating elements both above and below which can be set independently to give you your desired level of crispy base and crust. Reaching a pretty formidable 400C, we found pizzas cooked quickly and evenly and the oven easily handled round after round of cooking without losing heat. Overall this feels premium with its brushed steel finish, and if you think you’ll use it regularly the large initial spend would even out over time.

Buy now £699.99, Lakeland.co.uk

King Edward pizza king PK1 indoor pizza oven

This is one for true pizza enthusiasts who think they’ll get lots of use from their oven. Without a doubt the King Edward indoor pizza oven needs its own dedicated area in your kitchen, and is one for a larger space. In fact, this is a model which straddles commercial and domestic uses. The helpful team at Purist Pizza Ovens are on hand for any questions you have throughout the process, and there’s an accompanying booklet that quickly covers off the basics for quick mastery of your new oven.

There is no paddle included, so you’ll have to make sure you get your own before getting started but with this oven reaching 350C, we found it heated up quickly and was easy to get to grips with in terms of settings. It cooked pizzas in around four minutes, with nicely puffed crusts and crisped bases.

Buy now £999.99, Nisbets

Kalorik 13l countertop pizza oven

This petite indoor pizza oven is both the smallest and least expensive option from all that we tried, and was easy to manoeuvre thanks to being lightweight. While the temperature in this one only gets up to 250C (not much more than a conventional oven) so cooking homemade pizzas took around 15 minutes, the addition of the included pizza stone meant we had crisp-bottoms each time and a pleasingly bubbled top.

The lack of searing heat means less air pockets formed in the dough, and there were no patches of charring on the surface – which some people like – but if you’re looking for something that will fit in your cupboard and act as an extra mini oven from time to time, this does the job well.

Buy now £69.99, Studio.co.uk

Sage the smart oven pro mini oven

In keeping with the other Sage gadget we tried (£699.99, Lakeland.co.uk), this oven also felt sturdy, with a premium brushed steel finish. Easy to set up, there’s no assembly required and you’ll be able to make your pizzas with just fifteen minutes of pre-heating.

Rather than a stone base – which all the others have – this indoor pizza oven comes with a metal pizza tray which meant easy assembly outside the oven and no need for shuffling in with a paddle (a skill we found took a bit of practice and patience). Sadly pizzas still take 20 minutes to cook even after pre-heating the machine. While this isn’t the end of the world, it’s probably best suited to smaller families as you can only make one at a time.

Buy now £249.00, Ao.com

EffeUno P234h double-deck professional pizza oven

Reaching up to 500C, this Italian made indoor pizza oven was by far the hottest we tested. The initial process requires you to gradually heat the oven over a few hours and if anything – dare we say it – we found it got too hot (although, admittedly, that could be user error) with some of our pizzas suffering from a “well charred” finish.

After getting to grips with the temperature settings which can be different on the top and the bottom we were impressed with the 90 second timeframe in which it was turning out pizzas, and there was no recovery time needed in between, making it perfect for parties. The two layers also doubles the fun, an additional bonus if you have lots of hungry mouths to feed.

Buy now £729.00, Pizzaunited.co.uk

G3 Ferrari G10006 delizia pizza oven

Taking just minutes to heat up, this affordable option was one of our favourites overall. Pizzas took around four minutes to cook, which by our book is pretty good going, and it comes with two half moon metal paddles for you to build your pizza on quickly and easily (you hold them above the stone and pull them apart to drop your dough onto the plate).

There’s no real fine tuning needed, so any cook at any level can master this one, and the attractive red design means it looks good on a countertop while being small enough to stash away if you wish. Other ways we enjoyed using this little chap were as a toaster and as a way to chargrill veg – simply pop a cast iron plate or shallow pan in to heat up and add veggies like asparagus for a nice change to steamed sides. Easy cleaning is a bonus too.

Buy now £134.99, Amazon.co.uk

The verdict: Indoor pizza ovens

Our standout favourite for balancing price and performance was the Optima Pizza Express Napoli, which at £149 we thought was a relative bargain. Faff-free setup, crispy, charred pizzas with puffed crusts and ease of use all contributed to this being a brilliant all-rounder that would suit all kinds of cooks.

Special mention has to go to Sage’s smart oven pizzaiolo though. It felt slick and premium, and if you had a big kitchen and wanted to eat pizza regularly we thought it was an excellent contender.

Why not also invest in one of these bread makers for delicious home made loaves