Ooni Koda 2 Max pizza oven: first-look review

First impressions of the Ooni Koda 2 Max

There's no shying away from the fact this is a big piece of kit, and at least two people are needed for the unboxing process. The oven has the classic Ooni design, with a wide opening, carbon-steel body and stainless-steel interior, and feels solid and well made.

Its size means you'll need a large storage area to keep it tucked away in the winter, but as it's also very heavy, you probably won't want to be moving it around too regularly. Alternatively, you can buy a protective cover from Ooni, which is sold separately.

How easy is the Ooni Koda 2 Max to use?

We found the set-up of the Koda 2 Max fairly simple: the manual is a four-page fold-out with plenty of large diagrams and comprehensive instructions. The pizza oven needs to be turned onto its back to assemble the three legs, which screw in easily using a Torx key (provided). A small screwdriver (not provided) is also needed to insert the batteries for the ignition.

Because this is such a large oven, it comes with a two pizza stones and two burners on each side, which are controlled via two dials. These are located towards the back on the right-hand side, and getting the oven to light was very easy.

Heat levels can hit a maximum of 500C (perfect for cooking pizza in just a minute or two), and there's a brightly lit digital thermometer included so you can easily keep track of the temperature. Launching our first pizza inside was an absolute doddle thanks to the sheer size of the oven's opening – you can't go wrong with this amount of space.

We were also delighted to find that Ooni's guarantee was genuine: we could indeed fit three 10-inch pizzas inside this oven with room to spare. There was also more than enough space for our 20-inch pizza, though we could have done with an extra-large pizza peel to aid with launching and removing the dough from the oven. Ooni doesn't currently sell this accessory, though teased on social media that it may be soon.

After the Koda 2 Max had cooled, we found it relatively easy to clean, but the stones were wedged inside so we couldn't remove them to lift off the residue with a pizza oven brush.

Cooking results with the Ooni Koda 2 Max

Much like the best Ooni pizza ovens we've tested, the Koda 2 Max really lived up to our expectations. Our pizzas had an excellent leopard-spotted crust, bubbling toppings and an evenly cooked base. Our 20-inch pizza cooked quickly and was slightly overdone on one side as we couldn't turn it very easily – but still tasted great.

We also wanted to try cooking two different dishes simultaneously, so seared a ribeye steak in a cast-iron pan on one side and had a 12-inch pizza on the other. The steak needed a very hot temperature to achieve a golden sear, but was still impressively tender. We'd also advise ensuring you have a decent pair of protective oven gloves or barbecue gauntlets for handling a skillet once heated.

How sustainable is the Ooni Koda 2 Max?

We're very much in favour of brands that use fully recyclable packaging for their products, and Ooni is among them. This oven arrived in a nice combination of honeycomb padding and brown paper for smaller components. All the screws came in a paper envelope, too.

A one-year warranty is included as standard for the Koda 2 Max, but you can upgrade this to five years when you register online. Spare parts can also be purchased via Ooni's website.

Conclusion

The Koda 2 Max is undoubtedly the ultimate pizza oven for entertaining. It's brilliantly versatile and, for us, being able to cook multiple pizzas simultaneously without any issues felt like such a win.

Some households may struggle to store it, particularly as the legs can't be folded away. It's also very heavy, so moving it in and out of storage requires at least two people. To make the 20-inch pizza that Ooni claims you can with this oven (and as proven by us in our test), you also need an appropriately sized pizza peel to do this easily, which the brand doesn't currently sell.

On the plus side, we thought it offered fantastic value given the amount of space you have to work with, particularly with the five-year warranty (when you register) thrown in, too. A guarantee crowd-pleaser.

Available from:

• Ooni (£799)

Ooni Koda 2 Max pizza oven specifications

Food capacity: 15L
Wattage: 1700W
Dimensions: 31 x 33 x 38 cm
Guarantee: 1 year
Presets: 10

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This review was written in August 2024. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at [email protected].