Grilla is one of my favorite pellet grill brands, and they’ve now entered the pizza oven market with the Pie-Ro.

The Pie-Ro’s self-monitoring, pellet-fueled design brings something new to the pizza oven world. It aims to deliver the versatility of a pellet grill to the crowded pizza oven space.

But how does this innovative pizza oven compare to others? Today, I’ll dive into the Pie-Ro’s features, performance, and share my honest opinion.

Our Verdict

Grilla Grills sent me this grill in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Who is the Grilla Pie-Ro For?

Te Grilla Pie-Ro is a great option for beginners or anyone looking for an home easier pizza experience.

With the auto-rotating pizza stone, you won’t have to worry about manually rotating your pizza, making it a hassle-free way to cook. However, if you like sweating over a pizza peel, all you have to do is not activate the rotate mode, and you can run it manually to your heart’s content.

It strikes a good balance between the convenience of gas and the authentic wood-fired flavor, using wood pellets for that signature smoky taste. Unlike traditional wood-fired ovens, it’s much less messy, though you will need to vacuum out the pellet dust from time to time.

Finally, the massive temperature range allows for smoking, baking, roasting, and searing, making it more than just a pizza oven. I’ve tested a number of different pizza ovens over the years, and I haven’t found any with a temperature range comparable to the Pie-Ro.

That being said, there is not as much room inside the Pie-Ro as you would find on some of the larger ovens like the Ooni Koda 2 Max

How the Pie-Ro differs from other pizza ovens

Most pizza ovens rely on gas or wood to cook your pizza, but the Grilla Grills Pie-Ro takes things up a notch with its pellet-grill technology, making it easier than ever to get that perfect pie.

Forget the hassle of constantly adjusting the temperature like you would with a wood-burning oven, the Pie-Ro self-regulates so you can focus on the fun part: cooking.

Its rotating pizza stone guarantees an even cook, so you don’t have to keep rotating your pizza with a peel.

With a temperature range from 180°F to 800°F, it’s not just for pizza. You can bake everything from cobblers to bread with ease. And, in as little as 2 minutes, you’ll have a pizza ready to go, with little to no downtime between batches

Unboxing and setup

The Grilla Grills Pie-Ro comes mostly assembled. You’ll just need to connect the rotating pizza stone and internal components. Setting it up took about 10 minutes.

The Pie-Ro does not have legs, so it requires dedicated outdoor counter space, which can be a bit of a bummer depending on your backyard’s design. Grilla Grills offers full outdoor kitchen setups, and the Pie-Ro is compatible with those counter options.

Their website mentions that it will be compatible with the Grilla Prep Cart, but we’re still waiting for that to launch.

Before use, you’ll need to add your choice of wood pellets to the side hopper, which includes a handy latch to keep it secure.

Like a pellet grill, you’ll also need to connect the Pie-Ro to a power source.

Like with any other pellet grill or pizza oven, you will need to season the oven prior to use to burn off any chemicals left behind by the manufacturing process. Other than that, it comes out of the box ready to start cooking pizza.

The digital controller is located near the hopper on the left side of the oven and uses the same technology you would find on other pellet grills. You simply set the temperature you want to cook at and then the auger will feed pellets into the firepot, ignite the pellets, and start preheating.

It takes about 15 minutes to preheat the oven to the maximum temperature of 800°F.

Specifications 

Build quality

The build quality of the Grilla Grills Pie-Ro is impressive, especially compared to other pizza ovens on the market today. This thing is built like a tank.

The oven’s components are fixed with stainless steel bolts, but there are no rough edges on the exterior. The build quality is impressive, but not surprising, coming from Grilla Grills. It reminds me of the build quality of their grills I’ve tested, like the Grilla OG pellet smoker and the Primate gas grill. 

One thing that’s important to point out is that the Pie-Ro is pretty heavy at 86lbs compared to other pizza ovens around the same size. So you should plan to have a second set of hands around if you want to move it.

I was able to pick it up and move it myself (not to brag), but it was a bit of a struggle. 

The oven has a sleek design but doesn’t compromise aesthetics for build quality. It’s definitely one of the more durable pizza ovens I’ve ever tested.

The lid is hinged so you can lift it up to fully expose the pizza stone, which makes cleaning & assembly a breeze.

Cooking on the Grilla Grills Pie-Ro

Cooking pizzas on the Pie-Ro is as easy as pie (no pun intended).

It preheats quickly in about 15 minutes and self-regulates the temperature so you can cook pizzas back to back with little downtime in between. The rotating pizza stone makes it easy to let the pizza cook evenly without rotating it with your pizza peel.

All you have to do is press the “Rotate” button and the stone begins to turn slowly. You can also use the oven without the rotating feature if preferred. The stone rotates very smoothly and is a well-built design. 

We started with a couple of pizzas on pre-made pizza crusts to test the oven out.

I set the temperature to 550°F because I didn’t want to risk burning the pre-made crust, so I only let it preheat for about 10 minutes. In retrospect, I should have let the pizza stone preheat a bit longer because the crust didn’t crisp up as nicely as I would have liked. It took about 5-6 minutes before the cheese was nice and bubbly on top, but the lack of preheating time was evident in the center of the pizza. 

I recommend using an infrared thermometer, and Grilla actually offers one as an added accessory. The grill’s display will show the ambient temperature inside the oven, but an infrared thermometer is helpful for checking the temperature of the stone itself. 

For the next pizza, we let the pizza stone preheat for about 20 minutes before adding the pizza and the crust was much crispier. Preheating the pizza stone is essential on all pizza ovens, so this isn’t a Pie-Ro-specific requirement.

For homemade dough, or raw store-bought dough, I would recommend heating the oven to a higher temperature. It gets up to 800°F and at those temperatures you will have the best experience with cooking raw dough quickly and should be able to cook a 12” or 16” pizza in around 2-3 minutes with ease.

Clean Up

Cleaning the Pie-Ro is very easy.

You will need to use a wire brush to scrape the pizza stone between cooks to remove any leftover debris, but other than that there shouldn’t be much cleaning required.

Every 8 to 10 cooking sessions you should use a vacuum to clean out the pellet dust from the burn pot, similar to how you would clean out any pellet grill. The grill’s exterior can be cleaned with a towel and whatever you like to use to clean your counters or grills. 

Open the lid to remove the pizza stone from the grill easily. If you make a mess, you can also remove the rotating base for additional cleaning. 

Accessories

Grilla Grills offers a number of different accessories for the Pie-Ro pizza oven that can come in handy when you get started cooking pizza at home:

• Wooden Pizza Peel – a wooden pizza peel for prepping & slicing pizza.
• Aluminum Pizza Peel – an aluminum pizza peel that makes it easy to get your pizza in and out of the oven with little effort.
• Pizza Blade – the pizza blade is a long, metal blade that can be used to slice up your pizza.
• Pizza Cutter – they also offer a traditional, wheel-style pizza cutter for slicing up pies.
• Infrared Thermometer – Grilla has an infrared thermometer that can be used to check the temperature of your pizza stone after preheating the grill. 

• Pizza Stone Brush – a metal brush that helps with cleaning the pizza stone between cooks.
• Pie-Ro Cover – they offer a durable outdoor cover to keep your Pie-Ro clean & dry when not in use. 

Alternatives to Consider

When it comes to pizza oven options, one of the biggest things to consider is how much pizza you plan to cook and your budget. Pizza ovens range in price from around $100-$200 for simple models to upwards of thousands of dollars for custom, built-in ovens.

The Grilla Pie-Ro is more expensive than some popular ovens I’ve tested, like the Gozney Roccbox and some Ooni models. Still, its versatile temperature range and use of pellets for authentic woodfire flavor justify the cost.

While it’s quite a bit more expensive, the Ooni Koda 2 Max is a good choice if you need more room. This oven easily accommodates two pizzas at one time. Plus, it’s one of the few pizza ovens I’ve tested that allows for a wider range of temperature control, similar to the Pie-Ro.

One downside of the Ooni Koda 2 Max compared to the Grilla Grills Pie-Ro is that the Ooni only uses propane or natural gas, so you won’t be able to get that wood-fired pizza flavor. Another downside is that it costs nearly twice as much as the Grilla Grills Pie-Ro, so it could easily blow your budget out of the water.

What really sets the Pie-Ro apart from the other pizza oven options on the market is its ease of use and versatility. Its massive temperature range of 180°F to 800°F gives it an edge in the versatility department. The Pie-Ro can be used as an outdoor oven for baking, roasting, and even searing steaks at high temperatures. 

It also allows you to get that real, wood-fired pizza flavor without the hassle of a traditional wood-burning pizza oven. The fact that it can self-monitor and regulate temperature on its own is a massive selling point in my opinion.