And then there’s what we’ll call the ‘Ooni effect’—not just the flame, not just the performance, but the complete hospitality experience. Ooni sent us a generous grocery package to accompany the Koda 2, and it was, frankly, a joy. Ready-to-go pizza dough, top-tier sauces, sweet, creamy mozzarella, fine flour: the sort of provision that encourages you to skip the admin and head straight to the fun bit. It transformed our first session from a test into a party, and that matters. Because the Koda 2 is at its best when it’s surrounded by people—friends, family, neighbours who have “just popped round” and somehow stayed three hours. That one-stop approach—oven, tools and ingredients all exquisitely sorted—positions Ooni as more than a manufacturer. It’s a host-in-chief for those who want great pizza without faff, delivered with the polish of a luxury brand.



We decided to go big on the first firing: a pizza party, naturally. Six 14-inch pies, made and launched in rapid succession, each one a miniature ceremony as we stretched the dough, dressed the base and slid it confidently onto the peel. Then came the moment of truth—right hand on the handle, wrist angled just so—and the dough slipped off into the Koda 2’s cavern with a fluidity that made even novice pizzaioli grin. The oven’s Gen 2 flame technology did the rest, rolling heat across the stone, licking the crust and pushing those tell-tale leopard spots to the surface in a matter of moments. The result was pizza with a capital P: blistered cornicione, tender crumb, a base with that delicate, glassy crispness that snaps rather than shatters. We moved through toppings with the kind of abandon you normally only see in professional kitchens on a Friday evening—classic margherita, spicy nduja with honey, wild mushrooms with a whisper of truffle, anchovy and olive, and a white pie with lemon zest and rocket to cleanse the palate. It was a joyful way to test an oven, and the Koda 2 matched the energy beat for beat.

Let’s address the mechanics, because good design should be as easy to use as it is on the eye. The Koda 2 is gas-powered, and that proves a masterstroke for anyone who values simplicity and precision. There are purists who swear by wood, but for consistent, week-in, week-out performance, gas is where the magic meets convenience. Firing it up is as simple as turning a dial. There is no dance of kindling and pellets; no long preheat rituals; no smudged hands. You get instant heat and, crucially, controllable heat. The Gen 2 flame system adds a layer of finesse here, managing the flame so it wraps heat about the dome and across the stone in a way that keeps the cooking environment remarkably balanced. When you’re trying to feed a crowd without breaking a sweat, that stability is the difference between plates arriving together, piping hot, and a queue forming while you fight hotspots.

What impressed us most was how quickly the Koda 2 settled into a rhythm. Once the stone was up to temperature, recovery between pies was swift, allowing us to launch the next base almost as soon as the last came out. If you’ve ever juggled timings while friends hover with hungry eyes and a glass in hand, you’ll appreciate what that means in practice: a party that flows. We were making pizza, eating pizza, laughing, adding wood-fired-style char in a gas oven, and not once did we feel we were working at the oven rather than with it. The gas supply remained steadfast, the dial adjustments produced immediate, predictable changes in flame intensity, and the oven never threw a tantrum even when we demanded a high throughput of 14-inch bases. The Koda 2 feels engineered for precisely this style of sociable, high-tempo service.

That engineering is evident in the way the Koda 2 manages heat across the stone. The ideal pizza environment is an interplay between top heat and bottom heat—enough flame to puff and char the crust, enough stone heat to set the base without scorching it before the toppings have a chance to come alive. Ooni’s latest flame geometry appears to have been tuned for that balance. We saw even colouring, reliable puff and, importantly, a base that never turned brittle. If you enjoy pushing doughs with higher hydration for more open crumb, the Koda 2 rewards the effort. It’s a forgiving oven as well. On an early launch we were a touch heavy-handed with semolina; the oven shrugged it off, kept the stone clean, and the next pizza browned beautifully with no bitter dusting. The flame wraps around like a friendly dragon—dramatic, yes, but controlled, the hallmark of a design team that understands pizza at a practical level.

Luxury, in our view, is measured by the removal of friction. The Ooni ecosystem leans into that philosophy. The pizza peel’s balance and finish make it easy to work with high-hydration doughs that can defeat lesser tools. The digital thermometer, while simple, proves invaluable when you want to double-check dough or ambient temperatures on a breezy evening. And that stainless steel pop-up table deserves particular praise. It folds out and locks with minimal effort, takes the weight and heat of the oven in its stride, and provides just enough real estate for dough trays, sauce, cheese, herbs, oils, and a glass of something chilled. Where other outdoor rigs can sprawl and clutter, the Ooni setup remains elegant and compact. Everything has a place; everything works together; everything wipes clean at the end of the night without drama.

The grocery package added a final touch of theatre and, frankly, spoiled us. The ready-to-go dough behaved impeccably, stretching with that supple resistance you hope for but don’t always get from store-bought balls. The sauces had a freshness and balance that complemented rather than dominated, letting the natural sweetness of tomatoes speak. The mozzarella melted into pearlescent pools, the flour dusted and performed without clumping. It’s rare to see a brand pull the entire supply chain into a seamless evening, but Ooni managed it: from flame to flour, they’ve thought about the full journey. For many hosts, that’s the difference between a plan and a party—knowing you can order one bundle and be ready for greatness.

Of course, performance across seasons is where outdoor kit earns its keep. The gas-powered nature of the Koda 2 gives it a year-round appeal. Chilly February Friday? Light it. Drizzly April afternoon? Light it. There’s a liberating sense that pizza night is no longer chained to summer. The oven behaves consistently even when the air is brisk, and while a stiff wind will always test any flame, the Koda 2’s design minimises the effect. In our testing, a quick turn of the dial restored the stone to prime temperature in short order after each bake. We cooked as dusk fell and mist rolled in and discovered something of a ritual: make, launch, turn, pull, slice, repeat. There’s a calm satisfaction to the cadence, aided by an oven that doesn’t make you second-guess yourself.

If there’s a learning curve, it’s a gentle one. Newcomers to high-heat pizza often over-top or forget the importance of a clean launch. The Koda 2 won’t punish you for the occasional fumble. Keep your dough lightly floured, give the peel a confident shake before launching, and the oven will do the rest. Rotation is the only technique you’ll really want to master—turning the pizza once or twice during the bake to even out the colouring. The Koda 2 responds instantly when you crack the door, the flame continuing to lick over the dome so you never feel you’ve reset the process. The handle of the peel remains cool enough to manipulate, and the access is generous for a 14-inch pie, so you won’t be wrestling at awkward angles. In the time it takes to chat about the next topping combination, the current pie is ready to come out.

Cleaning and upkeep are blissfully straightforward. A hot stone is its own best caretaker; any stray flour burns off, and a quick brush before cool-down keeps the surface pristine. The exterior, finished to a standard that feels more boutique kitchen than barbecue, wipes down with a damp cloth to restore that showroom lustre. The gas fittings are robust and sit neatly out of the way, avoiding the tangle you sometimes find with outdoor appliances. We appreciated the absence of fuss: no ash pan, no pellet hopper, no trail of wood dust breadcrumbing your patio. After a night of heavy use, the pack-down took minutes—not because we hurried, but because there was so little to do.

Then there’s the question of value. Luxury is often confused with extravagance; the Koda 2 is luxurious because of the way it respects your time, your space, your guests and your ambition to serve something truly special. It is an investment, absolutely, but one that unlocks an experience that would cost you dearly to outsource on a regular basis. The restaurant-quality results are not a marketing flourish; they are the delightful norm once you and the oven are in step. And unlike a once-a-year showpiece, this is a machine you’ll use—on birthdays and bank holidays, after work on a Wednesday, when the match is on, when the neighbours drop by, or when you want to experiment with dough fermentations and flours on a lazy Sunday.

It would be remiss not to consider versatility, because while pizza is the star, the Koda 2 is a capable platform for more. Cast-iron pans sing in its heat, turning out blistered padrón peppers, seared prawns with garlic and chilli, or a pan-fried steak with an edge-to-edge crust that rivals your indoor hob. Flatbreads balloon and char in seconds, garlic knots brown beautifully, and you can have a tray of roasted tomatoes tumbling into sauce while you build the next base. The oven invites you to cook creatively, to think in courses, to treat the garden as your second kitchen. It’s this breadth that elevates the Koda 2 from gadget to instrument: the more you play, the more it reveals.



If you’re the sort who cares about aesthetics—and our readers typically are—you’ll be pleased to know the Koda 2 complements rather than clutters. It reads as modern and purposeful without slipping into industrial pastiche. The silhouette is low, the lines are crisp, the brand mark discreet. Set on that stainless steel pop-up table, with a row of dough balls proofing in a tray and a few bottles of oil catching the light, it completes the picture of a garden set up for good living. When the party is over, it folds away and tucks into a corner, waiting patiently for the next excuse.

In the end, what matters isn’t that an oven can reach a headline temperature, but that it delivers joy. The Koda 2 is joyous. Our first night with it—those six 14-inch pizzas, the laughter, the steady stream of “oh, wow” as crusts blistered and cheese bubbled—felt less like a product test and more like the beginning of a tradition. Guests leaned in to shape their dough, children dusted flour on their noses, someone insisted on extra basil, someone else invented an outrageous dessert pie and somehow got away with it. The Koda 2 was the catalyst. It’s designed to be enjoyed not only by the person working the peel, but by everyone in the orbit of that flame.

Gas power is the silent hero here. The ritual becomes a dial, a click and a glow, not a battle with kindling and wind direction. The Gen 2 flame technology is the loud hero, theatrically bright yet cleverly disciplined, making sure each pizza emerges with restaurant-quality confidence in the grounds of your own home. This is the alchemy Ooni has mastered: an oven that performs like a professional tool but feels welcoming enough for anyone to try. You can hand the peel to a friend who has never made a pizza in their life and, ten minutes later, they’re beaming at a margherita worthy of applause.

We’ve reviewed enough outdoor cooking kit over the years to know when a brand has nailed the brief. Ooni hasn’t merely built a great oven; it has built a great evening.

The craftsmanship is out of this world, the accessories are a lesson in how to do it properly, and the optional grocery package transforms logistics into hospitality. This is the one-stop luxury shop for your pizza needs, and the Koda 2 is its centrepiece. It’s the rare product that will make you a better host overnight and a better cook over time. It turns a patch of patio into a pizzeria and makes the simple ceremony of dough, sauce and cheese feel, every single time, like an event.

We’ll finish where we began, with that first impression of luxury. The Koda 2 looks the part, yes, but more importantly, it lives up to the promise once the flame is lit. It is, quite simply, one of the best garden-party must-haves you can buy. Being gas-powered means there is no seasonality to your pleasure; pizza night is whenever you fancy it. And the pizzas themselves? The best you’ve had at home, perhaps the best you’ve had full stop—fresh, delicate, blistered, and utterly moreish. For the keen foodie, the proud host, the family who want to gather around a ritual that never gets old, we can’t recommend it highly enough.

The Ooni Koda 2 puts perfection within reach, then invites everyone to share it.

Order yours at: https://uk.ooni.com/products/ooni-koda-2

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