While Nexgrill has been busy teasing hybrid grills, they also quietly released a pizza oven with some great features. We wrote an article speculating about the Ora before it was released, and thankfully, it was released with the features we wanted.
Features and Specs
- Retail price of $299 (check price), exclusively at Home Depot
- 12″ pizza oven
- Reaches 900 degrees in 20 minutes
- You can manually rotate the cordierite stone for an even cook without using a peel
- Top loading smoker box to add smoke flavor with wood chips or pellets
- Foldable legs for storage
- It weighs about 35 lbs
What We Like
The hardest part of cooking a pizza in an outdoor oven is getting the hang of rotating it with the peel. The Nexgrill Ora has a practical solution to solve that with a manual knob to rotate it. While other ovens, like the new Blackstone pizza oven do that automatically, they also are dramatically more expensive.
Besides the rotating stone, Nexgrill also offers a solution for wood fired flavor with the built-in smoker box. That’s a nice way to keep the price down compared to a true dual fuel oven like the Ooni Karu.
What We Don’t Like
While there is a lot to like about the Nexgrill Ora pizza oven, the one thing that stands-out about the specs is that the pre-heating time is on the long side. Similar pizza ovens, albeit more expensive, pre-heat usually in around 15 minutes.
Other Thoughts
There are a couple early negative reviews on Home Depot’s website of people using this oven to cook a frozen pizza. As a PSA, that’s not really what these are built for. You may be able to cook a frozen pizza in it if you let it thaw first, but we’ve never tried it. These are made to cook homemade pizzas.
If you want some of the convenience of a frozen pizza, but with way better flavor, check out Ooni Dough Balls or Solo Stove Pi Supply for premade dough. They’ll ship you delicious premade dough that you just have to let thaw and it’s ready to go.
Conclusion
Much like the Oakford pellet grill, Nexgrill has found the sweet spot for value. Despite the low cost of the Ora, it has some innovative features without the high price tag you’d expect. It’s definitely worth considering if you’re in the market for a new outdoor pizza oven.