Ooni Fyra pizza oven review

• Slightly tricky to light
• Loses heat quickly
• Burns through fuel very fast
• Burn time short

Star rating: 4.2/5

The Ooni Fyra is an easy model to assemble and use, it’s great for beginners who are interested in an entry level pizza oven.

It doesn’t use logs or gas, instead it uses wood pellets that are fed through a hopper into the oven, so once lit, there’s no complications of managing the flames, or how to keep it going.

The fuel bags are easy to transport and come in a resealable bag, so there’s less chance of getting them damp – great if you’re looking to take your pizza oven camping or travelling.

What were your first impressions of the Ooni Fyra?

The Ooni Fyra is compactly packaged and it was a one-person job to carry into the garden.

There’s a decent amount of bubble packaging around the cordierite pizza stone slab, but the rest of the box was fortunately recyclable, and not excessive.

Once unveiled, the pizza oven was assembled in minutes, with only a few items to attach on, and no extra tools needed. The instruction manual was clear and concise, and we felt confident using it within the hour, despite never having used a pizza oven before.

When tested, our pizza oven came with an additional pizza peel to help slide the pizzas in and out of the oven (as you have to turn them every 20 seconds to get an even cook). This tool was invaluable, but does come separately at an additional £54.99.

Other peels are available from the Ooni website in 12 inches at a variety of prices and would do the trick equally well.

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How easy is the Ooni Fyra to light?

We set the pizza oven directly on the patio stones, which made it a little low for looking inside. We recommend investing in a sturdy metal outdoor table if you’re thinking of lighting this up frequently.

To light the Ooni Fyra, you simply remove the grate from the back of the oven, fill with pellets and use a firelighter to get the pellets started.

We didn’t have any firelighters, so found it very tricky to light, but with natural firelighters it wouldn’t be a problem. The pellets are slightly resistant to catch fire, but after a few attempts, we got it going with a little help from a newspaper.

It heat up surprisingly quickly – it only took 15 minutes to reach 400C. To keep a consistent temperature through cooking you must remember to keep filling up the fuel hopper with pellets. We were filling it up about every 15 minutes, which cooks about 3-4 small pizzas.

We got through the bag of fuel quite quickly – we’d used a 3kg bag (£9.99) after firing up the pizza oven twice, but other, cheaper brands of pellets will work fine.

How easy is it to cook a pizza in the Ooni Fyra?

With the Frya up to temperature, the wood pellets glowing and the flames licking the top of the oven, a pizza slides in easily with a little shuffle of the floured peel.

We replaced the easily removable door, and waited patiently for 30 seconds before spinning the pizza. The crust was puffed and the bubbles blackened, there was no doubt the oven was up to temperature, although opening and closing the oven did mean it started to lose heat fairly rapidly. Despite that, the pizza took no more than 1 minute 30 seconds to cook.

The pizza oven takes about 5-10 minutes to come back up to temperature, giving us plenty of time to assemble the next one on the peel.

There was only two of us eating, but if there had been more, there would’ve been quite a delay between eating times. However, this would be great at a pizza party when you slice and share around, but with just two of us, it meant eating on the go getting the next one ready.

We also tested the Ooni pizza essentials bundle (£43.35) - a decadent hamper filled with everything you need to get started making pizza, from OO flour and yeast to tinned tomatoes, mozzarella and pepperoni. Also a great gift for anyone you know with a pizza oven.

How big is the Ooni Fyra oven space?

The oven space itself is fairly thin, you wouldn’t be able to roast a chicken in there for example, but you could make naan breads, slide in a tray of skewers or even a slab of steak.

How hot does the outside get?

The outside gets very hot, so keep children and pets well clear. A few gusts of wind caused a backdraft of flames through the rear grate which you also need to look out for.

Can you keep the Ooni Fyra outside?

Although the Fyra doesn’t come with a cover, it can withstand fair weather conditions. But with it’s easily transportable, lightweight/compact nature and removable components, it can easily be stored in a shed or on a garage shelf once completely cooled, which takes up to two hours.

Ooni Fyra pizza oven: the verdict

I’d recommend this pizza oven for pizza fans who want a starter pizza oven for garden parties and fun Friday night dinners. Our favourite thing is the compact nature of it, and high temperatures – there’s no way to mimic that environment in an oven.

Ooni Fyra star ratings

Ease of assembly 5/5
Overall build quality 4.5/5
Ease of use 3.5/5
Packaging 4/5
Value for money 3.5/5
Cooking results 4/5
Ease of storage 5/5

Overall star rating: 4.2/5

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This review was last updated in June 2020. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.