As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of hands-on experience at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I’ve tested more pizza ovens than I can count. In this comparison, I’ll dive into two models I’ve personally used in my kitchen: the DeliVita and the Stoke pizza ovens. I’ll evaluate them across key factors like quality and materials, temperature control, shape, first-time usage impressions, power source, size, ease of cleaning, and finally, I’ll walk you through a real pizza cooking test to see how long it actually takes to cook a Margherita pizza in each. If you’re curious about my full testing method, I also have a separate article explaining how I test pizza ovens from a professional kitchen perspective.
The DeliVita is a premium, hand-crafted wood-fired oven made in the UK, known for its beautiful design and authentic cooking experience.
The Stoke pizza oven is a more budget-friendly, gas-powered option that promises high heat and convenience in a compact, backyard-friendly format.
This article offers a comprehensive comparison of the DeliVita and the Stoke, based on my own testing experience.
Lastly, just a heads-up—this article contains referral links that help keep my blog running. If you choose to purchase through them, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Your support means a lot!
DeliVita VS Stoke: Quality and Materials
| The DeliVita Wood-Fired Oven is handmade in Yorkshire using fiberglass and clay. It feels premium, durable, and weather-resistant, designed for serious outdoor use. |
The Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven uses decent materials, but they don’t match the refinement and craftsmanship of the DeliVita. The build is solid, but less impressive.
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DeliVita VS Stoke: Temperature Control
| The DeliVita Wood-Fired Oven heats up to 550°C in just 25 minutes. It requires manual temperature control using wood, but once mastered, it offers excellent consistency. |
The Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven claims 900°F, but we reached only 700°F in testing. It took longer to heat and didn’t deliver the same consistent temperature as DeliVita.
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DeliVita VS Stoke: Shape
| With its classic dome shape and clay interior, the DeliVita Wood-Fired Oven promotes efficient heat circulation, helping pizzas cook evenly and quickly. |
The Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven has a less efficient design, with a thick wall between the flame and stone, which restricts heat flow and slows performance.
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DeliVita VS Stoke: First-Time Usage Impressions
| The DeliVita arrived fully assembled and ready to use. Its stylish finish and intuitive layout made a strong first impression straight out of the box. |
The Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven took 10 minutes to assemble. It’s easy to set up, but lacks the elegance and polish of the DeliVita experience.
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DeliVita VS Stoke: Power Source
| The DeliVita Wood-Fired Oven is purely wood-powered, giving pizzas an authentic, smoky flavor that stands out in every bite. |
The Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven offers both wood and gas models. We tested the wood version, which delivered good flavor but with more heat inconsistency.
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DeliVita VS Stoke: Size
| Weighing around 66 pounds, the DeliVita is compact yet capable of baking 12-inch pizzas with ease. It’s a great fit for patios or outdoor counters. |
The Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven weighs about 40 pounds and is more portable. However, its smaller size limits the cooking surface slightly compared to the DeliVita.
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DeliVita VS Stoke: Ease of Cleaning
| Cleaning the DeliVita is straightforward. It includes useful long-handle tools and a smart layout that makes post-cook cleanup easy. |
The Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven is also simple to clean, but it doesn’t include specialized tools like the DeliVita, making the process slightly less convenient.
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Pizza Cooking Test: DeliVita vs Stoke
When testing the DeliVita Wood-Fired Oven, it took about 25 minutes to reach its full cooking temperature of around 550°C (over 1000°F). Once preheated, the oven cooked a classic Margherita pizza in just under 2 minutes. The result was impressive — a crisp, golden crust with perfectly melted mozzarella and that unmistakable wood-fired flavor that’s slightly smoky and incredibly satisfying. The bottom was evenly cooked, and the leopard spotting on the crust gave it a true artisan look.
On the other hand, the Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven needed around 45 minutes to reach its peak temperature, which in our case topped out at 700°F, despite its 900°F claim. The Margherita pizza took over 2.5 minutes to cook. While the top of the pizza was nicely done, with melted cheese and a good visual finish, the bottom didn’t quite crisp up as expected. The flavor was pleasant, but it lacked the deep char and texture that the DeliVita delivered.
In this side-by-side cooking trial, the DeliVita clearly provided a faster and more refined pizza experience.
How We Tested
As a restaurant chef with over a decade of hands-on experience at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I approached this comparison of the DeliVita and Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens with the same level of scrutiny I apply in my professional kitchen. To keep the testing fair and consistent, I used both ovens on the same day, under similar weather conditions, using identical ingredients and dough batches for a classic Margherita pizza.
Each oven was allowed to preheat fully based on the manufacturer’s guidelines. I monitored internal temperatures using an infrared thermometer and tracked the time each oven took to reach its optimal cooking range. I then timed how long it took to cook each pizza and evaluated the results based on crust texture, browning, cheese melt, and overall flavor.
In addition to the pizza test, I also looked at practical aspects like ease of setup, how intuitive the controls felt during a busy cooking session, how consistent the heat remained throughout multiple bakes, and how easy the ovens were to clean after use.
This hands-on testing process helps me provide a chef’s perspective on how these ovens truly perform, not just in theory but in real-world, repeatable scenarios.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, whether you choose the DeliVita or the Stoke Wood-Fired Pizza Oven depends entirely on your personal needs, cooking style, and budget. Both ovens deliver enjoyable results, but if you’re looking for premium craftsmanship and a truly authentic wood-fired experience, the DeliVita may be the better fit. That said, the Stoke also holds its own as a solid, affordable option for casual outdoor cooking.
If you decide to purchase one of these ovens, I’d really appreciate it if you used my referral links — it helps support my blog at no extra cost to you.
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