It's no secret that Ooni dominates the pizza oven market. I've been trying to find something to replace the Ooni Karu 16 as our favorite pizza oven for years - half the time my job feels like I'm advertising for them rather than reviewing.
The good news is that the Ooni Karu 16 has been replaced at the top of my guide to the best pizza ovens. The kicker? It's been replaced with a different Ooni. The company recently launched the Ooni Karu 2 Pro, and when I tried it the other week on seven different pizzas, I knew it had to go in at number #1.
This means that the original flagship oven has been kicked down the pecking order, but that also means a huge Black Friday discount. Because the original Ooni has been supplanted, it's now the cheapest I've ever seen it, and $280 cheaper than it was in the summer. One of the best pizza ovens in the world is finally affordable, but this is such a good deal that it sold out on Ooni's own site, so you need to be fast to grab it from Best Buy.
What's the deal?
What's so good about this oven?
For years we thought this was the best pizza oven in the world. It can cook with gas for ease and convenience and wood for unbeatable smokiness. It can cook a crisp pizza crust in just over a minute, making for perfect pizza.
Unlike most pizza ovens on the market at the time, the Ooni Karu 16 had a door, and not just that, a door with a window. It seems like an obvious feature, but it sets the oven above many others because it means that the air retains a little moisture while the rolling flame evaporates grease and wetness from the pepperoni and sauce. This also helps the pizza, because the crust is the perfect consistency. Where other pizza ovens leave the pizza wet with sauce, the Karu 16 harmonizes every element into a world-beating pizza.
That's not just a figure of speech - it was the first domestic pizza oven recommended by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, a non-profit dedicated to preserving Neapolitan pizza.
In short, this was the best oven we had tried. It was faster, easier to use, and tasted better than any oven we'd tested - until the Ooni Karu 2 Pro, available at Ooni and my new pick for the best pizza oven.
What are the drawbacks to this oven?
There are two main drawbacks to this oven: the cooking area and the thermometer.
Firstly, the Karu 16 holds, unsurprisingly, a 16" pizza. But the Karu 2 improves on this capacity by excavating a little space up the back of the oven under the burner. This slightly increases the capacity while maintaining almost the same exterior dimensions. I've done the math and the Karu 2 Pro has more useful cooking space while only increasing its exterior dimensions by 1%. That means more room for cooking, and it's especially useful if you're cooking non-pizza dishes that need skillets or pans.
On top of that, the original Karu has a very basic digital thermometer with a retro digital readout. It's fine, but it just shows the temperature, so you need to learn the right temperatures for different pizzas. The updated thermometer on the Karu 2 Pro - the grandly named 'Digital Thermometer Hub' - has handy color coding to let you know when you reach the top temperature. It also has a probe thermometer, which proved especially helpful when testing roasted chicken thighs.
A smaller improvement is with the door. The door of the new Karu 2 Pro has a bigger window, so you have a better view inside, and it does a slightly better job of retaining moisture.
Are there any other good pizza oven deals?
While the deal on the Karu 16 is one of the best I've seen this year, there are a handful of other deals worth considering.
Don't just take my word for it - there are plenty of pizza ovens out there and it pays off to do your research. There are a lot of Ooni alternatives and I've directly compared Ooni to their biggest rivals, Gozney. There is also a range of indoor pizza ovens to consider.
