I’ve finally got my hands on the Gozney Tread Pizza Oven - and it just might be my favourite oven yet

Dubbed ‘the world’s most portable pizza oven, the Gozney Tread is a pizza oven like no other. Complete with a carrying bag, roof rack, and handles, it’s been made for the hikers, bikers, and adventure seekers. Much as I wish I could say that I’m one of the outdoorsy crew, I’m more of a glamper than a camper, but that doesn’t matter. The Gozney Tread is still brilliant in my book.

My family runs a pizza business, which means that I grew up around some of the best pizza ovens you’ll find. Amongst the top tier of ovens sits Gozney: famous for quality, build, and technical perfection.

Normally, their pizza ovens are a little less portable, but this petite oven offers a clever way to cook on the beach, or in the comfort of a small, urban courtyard, like mine. It’s been put to the test my family and our hight standards. And the Gozney Tread more than stands up to scrutiny. It paves a new way for portable pizza ovens.

Gozney Tread Pizza Oven review

• External dimensions: 42 x 48 x 32 (WDH)
• Door size: 21 x 8.5 (WH) - 12 inches
• Weight: 13.5 kg
• Temperature range: up to 500˚C
• Gas hose length: 1.2m
• Included: hose and regulator, burner guard, stone adjustment tool, torx wrench, manual
• Warranty: 5 years

Unboxing the Gozney Tread Pizza Oven

Gozney’s pizza ovens are some of the most expensive models on the market, but at £500, this is one of their most affordable models. It’s still about £150 more than some competitors, but easily justifies its price tag if you’re serious about pizzas.

The build-quality is fantastic, everything from the way the gas clips in, to the speed at which this heats up feels premium. The temperature gauge on the side is shockingly accurate, and even the set-up is painless. You’ll want to have some spare money for investing in the pizza stand and some accessories, but if you know you’ll use yours regularly, this is perfect.

You might not consider a portable pizza oven as a permanent fixture, but it’s actually really handy. This is small enough that you could pack it into the car for a picnic or beach dinner, but I like the size for my small urban courtyard at home. For context, this courtyard is so small that it wasn’t even listed on the house description when we were buying the house. Now, it’s the hub of the home, largely in part because of the delicious pizza served-up there.

Who would the Gozney Tread Pizza Oven suit?

One of the things that I love about Gozney is how simple and straightforward their ovens are to set up. You could image that, as market-leaders, they would feel the need to complicate things with lots of extras, but the oven arrives pretty much ready to go. I have the Gozney stand, which this sits neatly on, but you could equally put it on a table, because the base is designed to be insulated enough to rest on grass, for example.

You’ll need to make sure that you have a bottle of propane gas, but Gozney sends a gas hose and the place for connection is easy too.

True to its portable name, this was also relatively easy to move around. Of course, it’s not the kind of eight that I’d happily throw over my shoulder (no good pizza oven should be), but the handles on top and the carry bag make it pretty portable and easy enough for me to get into place without it feeling like an overstretch.

What is the Gozney Tread Pizza Oven like to use?

Gozney recommends burning the oven for about fifteen minutes before first use, which is pretty standard for all brands. It clears any factor dirt, dust, or other bits that might have settled in transit.

With the gas running, I kept checking in on the temperature and I was surprised at how quickly this got up to 300°C. Within ten minutes, it was ready to go, which is seriously impressive. Of course, I had to wait, because this was my first time using the oven, but from now, I could start cooking in ten minutes, which is really great.

To triple check the oven, I used a temperature gun, which shows up any cold spots on the base. The Tread was consistently heated across the whole stone, which is even more impressive for the first go.

Of course, the first test that I ran was making pizzas. The Gozney Tread is the perfect size for a 12-inch pizza, which is about 8 oz of dough. I have wooden boards that I use with all my ovens and these just managed to squeeze inside the mouth of the oven. Once through, there’s a little more wiggle room for moving the pizza around inside, which is helpful for beginners.

I made ten pizzas, back-to-back, in the Gozney Tread and each was as impressive as the one before. The bases crisped-up beautifully and cooked evenly. I was surprised at this, because some pizza stones cool down when they're used back to back, but the Gozney proved to be faultlessly consistent.

The crust on each pizza puffed up beautifully. You can see in the image above that my cheese melted really well too. I made some vegetable pizzas, which are heavier and they need a little longer to cook, and the oven still churned-out flawless results in 90 seconds. My one recommendation would be to invest in a slim pizza peel (like Gozney’s own one), because when you’re light on space, a slim design can really help you to move the pizza. Given that mine were cooking in just over one minute, I was really impressed.

Given that the Gozney Tread was running hot, I turned the temperature down to just below 300°C for my vegetable skillet. This is a 11-inch cast iron skillet that just squeezed its way through the oven mouth. I packed courgette, onion, pepper, and mushrooms into the skillet and sat it in the oven for five minutes.

It cooked really nicely in a low-and-slow way. I could see the thinner tips of the onion, pepper, and mushrooms blackening under the flames. There were also some lovely golden-brown bubbles appearing on the courgettes, a sign that they were cooking nicely.

When my seven minutes were up, the vegetables were beautifully cooked through, tender and warm through each bite. They were bursting with flavour and ready in a really decent timeframe.

I always like to test a lighter, quicker cook in a pizza oven too. I turned the flame right down in the Gozney Tread. I popped the same 11-inch skillet in the oven, with nacho chips, salsa, guacamole, and grated cheddar on top. This didn’t need more than one minute in the residual heat of the oven. You can see that the chesse melted nicely and the chips toasted. I did have to put the flame on for fifteen seconds to get this result and I actually wouldn’t recommend leaving it on for long, because chips and delicate foods can catch fire really easily in ovens like this.

A pizza evening isn’t complete without a sweet treat, so I also made cookies. This sat in the 11-inch skillet on 200°C for six minutes. I did manage to overcook the ones at the back a little (You can see they’re on the heavy side of caramelised), but they were really yummy.

They’d cooked through, the chocolate melted, and we made our way through multiple batches of cookie dough. I think our totally satiated, full-to-the-brim sleepy states reflected just how good the pizzas were. I was pleased with the results.

Cleaning the Gozney Tread Pizza Oven

Keeping your pizza oven clean should be really easy. I noticed some black soot collecting around the mouth of the Gozney Tread, but this instantly wiped-off with a mcirofibre-cloth. The base of the oven needed to be swept with a steel wire brush, which did a wonderful job of lifting any blackness up from the bottom of the pizza stone.

If you’re wondering how to clean a pizza oven really deeply, this is about the full extent of it. Gozney recommend using a non-caustic, bleach-free cleaning spray on the outside if any areas get dirty. Water or a dry microfibre cloth has always worked fine for me, just make sure you don’t use abrasives. Gozney also says “the best way to clean inside the Tread is to burn off any food debris or soot that is left behind, because when the oven is over 500˚C, it will start self-cleaning.”

You shouldn’t ever get the pizza stone wet, because it’s porous and so water isn’t good for the health of the stone. A brush is one of the best investments you can make.

How does the Gozney Tread Pizza Oven compare?

Cards on the table, we’re a real Gozney family. Lots of us have these ovens, from the brother that runs the business (who has a huge, commerical Gozney in a truck) to the other brother who swears by the Gozney Arc. The one that we couldn’t help drawing parallels between was the Arc and everyone agreed that the Tread feels a little more modern.

We liked that the temperature is a dial and not analogue (it feel smore reliable) and we actually found the portable aspect of it really nice to have. We hadn’t considered that the Arc would ever come with us on our travels, but knowing that the Tread could made us love it that little bit more. Of course, it’s smaller, but I could still fit all of my tests in the oven mouth, so I think it can do a decent job of a pizza evening and as a simple, domestive oven.

If you’re looking to step away from Gozney to save some money, other gas ovens will feel like a compromise. I like Ooni’s Karu 2 as an alternative that offers space for wood-burning too, but it does feel cheaper. I cooked some great pizza in it nonetheless and, whilst set-up was a little more involved, you have got more fuel options. The other one that springs to mind as a good alternative is the electric Ooni Volt, which can be used indoors and outdoors. You don’t need to turn your pizzas in here, which makes it a brilliant option for people who are new to making pizza and a little concerned about their skills as a pizzolo.

Should you buy the Gozney Tread Pizza Oven?

If you’re looking for a compact and luxurious pizza oven, you’ve found the perfect one here. Whilst it’s more expensive than other gas ovens, you feel it in the quality and speed with which it cooks pizzas. I also, accidentally, fell in love with the idea that I can take this with me on a road trip. Not that I needed an excuse for another holiday.

How we test

At woman&home, I am our resident pizza tester. That’s because I’ve grown up cooking pizza as part of my family’s business. With more than a decade of cooking experience and hundreds of thousands of pizzas under my belt, I know what a good pizza oven looks like, so you’re in safe, honest, unsponsored hands with me.

I make lots of different pizzas in each oven that I test, as well as doing some baking, roasting vegetables, and whipping up a skillet of nachos. This tells me how good the pizza oven is at the bread-and-butter basics, as well as how versatile it is in terms of what it can do. These are expensive pieces of kit, so I think they should be able to cover all bases.

I also let you know hoe the oven looks, what you need to do to clean it, and whether you need to invest in any special extra accessories before you can start to make the most of your oven. By the end of the review, you should know everything that you need to. And, if you still have questions, don’t hesitate to ask me. I am always happy to talk about all things pizza. You’ll just need to stop me, because I could talk about them for days.

You can find out more about how we test pizza ovens on our dedicated page.