Welcome to T3’s review of the convolutedly-named Ninja Artisan Electric Outdoor Pizza Oven & Air Fryer.
The best pizza ovens are everywhere these days but when it comes to convenience and practicality, nothing beats going electric, not least because electric pizza ovens can still be used indoors when the weather’s unfavourable. And that’s something you just can’t do with gas, let alone wood or charcoal.
This particular electric model from the house of Ninja straddles four different disciplines – pizza baking, air frying, baking and proving. It sounds like a match made in heaven, but does the Artisan bite off more than it can chew? And how does it compete against our two favourite electric front runners, the Sage Smart Oven Pizzaiolo and the Ooni Volt 12?
Ninja Artisan Electric Pizza Oven & Air Fryer review: price and availability
The Ninja Artisan Electric Pizza Oven & Air Fryer is available from a number of online stores in the UK but you could just as well start with Ninja direct where the standard pack retails at £249.99 and the combo with stand and cover shifts for a commendable £299.99.
Amazon and Argos also sell the basic package for around £249, but if you want a really, really fantastic deal, then head straight to B&Q where the standard pack is currently selling for a remarkably low price of £175. If you live Stateside, head straight to Ninja or Amazon where this model retails at around $299.99, give or take a few cents.
Ninja Artisan Electric Pizza Oven & Air Fryer review: design and features
(Image credit: Ninja)
Despite being labelled as an ‘outdoor’ product, the Ninja Artisan can only be used outdoors in fine weather and certainly not in the rain – unless you want more than the pizza baked. I’m a big fan of electric pizza ovens because a) I personally can’t detect a whole lot of difference in taste between a pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven and one cooked using electricity, b) I can use an electric pizza oven all year round, indoors or out, and c), electricity is the perfect fuel source for pizzas because you can simply fit an old-fashioned oven-like heating element below the stone and one in the oven’s ceiling so everything – both bottom and top – gets a good seeing to. And in record time.
Put another way, I’ve never hollered ‘wow, this wood-fired pizza is something else’ across a restaurant table. But I have extolled the virtues of its base and, more importantly the faintly salty taste, structure, height and texture of its crust. I’ve personally made many amazing pizzas at home in an electric pizza oven using Gozney’s pre-frozen Peddling Pizzas dough balls and no-one’s ever complained. In fact they tell me they’re as good as any restaurant – and believe me I am no pizzaiolo. I just use good quality, well proved dough and top ingredients, and almost every one that comes out of my Ooni electric pizza oven is off the scale in terms of texture and flavour.
I would say that this Ninja oven is definitely up there with the likes of Ooni and Sage when it comes to ease of use and, above all, results. But it’s not all plain sailing because there are one or two other aspects with this oven that really disappoint. Let’s get down to the review.
At 32cm in height, 59cm in depth and 42cm can width, this machine is pretty large and sits on four tall fixed legs though it at least fits on a standard kitchen counter top. At around 12 kilos, it’s quite weighty, too, but certainly manageable for carrying from kitchen to patio. This oven also includes a bright interior light and I can’t praise this feature enough since it allows the user to monitor the pizza at all times – paramount when pizza baking. Rather handily, the Artisan also ships with a pizza peel that you need to assemble yourself, plus an air frying basket and large baking tin (but more on this later).
(Image credit: Future)
Like other electric pizza ovens, the Ninja Artisan comes with a reversible cordierite stone big enough for a 12-inch pizza though the stone itself does leave a gap of about 7mm around the edges, which means crumbs and pizza debris will gather there after a while. Heat is provided by two circular heating elements – one above and the other below the stone – and a fan at the rear, which is also used for the air fryer function. All this ensures even heating for both the pizza toppings and the crust.
However, unlike the Ooni or Sage ovens, you can’t manually alter the temperature of each element. Instead you’re offered five presets: Artisan, Thin, New York, Pan and your own combined Custom temperature.
Before I get to the actual pizza baking part, one very cool facet with this model is that it also has a 30˚C dough proofing option and you should definitely make use of this by placing your dough on a dish covered in damp toweling in the oven for an hour or so before you select your preferred pizza baking option.
(Image credit: Future)
Right, back to the pizza. Once you’ve selected a pizza style, the oven announces a pre-heating period of about 20 minutes so the stone can get nice and hot. My favourite setting is Neapolitan-style Artisan which cooks the pizza at its highest temperature of 370˚C for less than two minutes. I consider 370˚ an ideal temperature for domestic pizzas since most of us can’t stretch dough as thinly as the pros who usually bake well above 400˚C.
A temperature of 370˚C is the sweet spot for manageable time frames and the ability to bake both the top and, more importantly, the base evenly without it burning. The other pizza settings simply use a different range of temperatures to suit the specific style of pizza. You can read about the results of my pizza test in the Performance chapter.
(Image credit: Future)
Now, clearly some whizz at the Ninja conference table thought ‘we’re famous for air fryers so why don’t we bung one in this oven?’. And so, the Ninja Artisan also morphs into an air fryer. However, this element of the package is disappointing mostly because it’s a faff to use. Why? Well the instructions aren’t clear on the preparation required for air frying so I winged it and removed the stone before sliding the baking tray and air fryer basket into the oven. I say slide, but it’s more of a scrape since there are no guide rails.
Putting the air fryer basket on top of the stone would clearly turn it into an oily mess and putting the basket directly on top of the heating elements would cause fats to drip down and cause an equally awkward-to-clean mess. Anyway, you can read more about this versatile machine’s air frying function further down.
The Ninja Artisan can also bake using the preset baking function. However, the tin they provide is shallow and wide so I’m not sure you’d want to try a bona fide cake in it. I can’t bake so I double checked a video or two and users’ results were okay but nothing to write home about.
Ninja Artisan Electric Pizza Oven & Air Fryer review: performance
(Image credit: Future)
For my pizza test I used Peddling Pizza’s amazing pre-frozen Ready Made Pizza Dough Balls which you can purchase through the Gozney website (£25.95 for 12).
I started by proving the dough using the Artisan’s 30˚C proofing function before selecting the unit’s Pizza feature and choosing the Artisan setting. The oven went through a 25-minute pre-heating sequence before alighting on its preset temperature of 370˚C. During this time I thinly stretched and loaded the dough with some grated mozzarella, tomato passata, pepperoni and a few sliced olives.
I then reached for the included pizza peel, gave it a dusting with Caputo Semola flour, added the raw pizza base and slid it into the oven. I could see progress within 15 seconds but left it for another 20 seconds before turning. At 60 seconds it was already starting to bubble and the side crusts had risen to over an inch in height. I gave it another turn, inspected the base which looked perfect and removed the pizza after about two minutes. Bingo, a stupendous pizza from top to bottom replete with a perfectly cooked base and huge airy crust. A five-star pizza in my book.
(Image credit: Ninja)
The next day I tried the air frying function using half a dozen chicken drumsticks. The default cooking time was 20 minutes at 180˚C so I left it at that and returned to discover that the legs hadn’t cooked as much as I’d expected. I left them in for another 10 minutes by which time they looked a bit grey and unappetising. Another 10 minutes passed and they were still not looking great, so I removed them and put them in my Philips air fryer. After 5 minutes in the Philips at 200˚C, their skins were crispy. Perhaps I jumped the gun by using the Philips but its air circulation is clearly a lot better than the Ninja’s, so I rest my case.
Aside from not wowing me with its air frying ability, I just don’t think many would go to the trouble of using the this function, mostly because it’s also a bit of a hassle. Firstly, once the basket is in, you can’t see anything cooking, even with the oven’s internal light on. And secondly, the mesh basket is a hassle to clean, mostly because the basket’s mesh is so closely knitted. Consequently, it took me ages to remove remnants of stuck-on chicken skin, despite a seemingly endless session scrubbing it with a sink brush.
As a pizza oven, this one is well up there with the likes of the Ooni Volt 12 and Sage Pizzaiolo, and for half the price, which makes it a bargain – even if the air fryer function is a bit pants.
Ninja Artisan Electric Pizza Oven & Air Fryer review: verdict
(Image credit: Future)
The Ninja Artisan redefines patio cooking with a smart, space-saving design that delivers wood-fired style pizzas without the fuss. Built for outdoor and indoor use, the Ninja Artisan combines the charm of artisan pizza-making with the versatility of air frying, roasting and baking for those who can be bothered with setting it all up. In short, this is an excellent electric pizza oven at an amazing price, but the jury’s out on the air fryer function, which is no great shakes and awkward to use.
