Best Woks of 2025
Make your own stir-fry at home with one of these top woks
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There’s nothing like a quick stir-fry when you want to get a veggie-packed dinner on the table in a hurry. Sure, you can stir-fry in a skillet, but a wok is a better choice: With its high sides, a wok holds more and you can move the food around faster to keep it from becoming overdone. These pans are designed for you to toss and cook meat and veggies at a rapid rate on high heat.
Of course, home ranges and cooktops can’t approach the level of heat you’d see at your local Chinese restaurant, where the cooks can dial up the temperature much higher than you can at home. But using a wok designed for a residential range can get you satisfying results nonetheless.
While restaurants use round-bottom woks set in a ring above a gas burner, most of the woks you’ll find on the market for home use in the U.S. have a flat bottom, an adaptation for a country where the majority of homes have an electric range or cooktop. If you happen to have a gas range, you can use a round-bottomed wok with a ring placed around the burner. Of the 10 woks Consumer Reports tested, three have a round bottom and the rest have a flat bottom. And—spoiler alert—”they were all fine,” says Bernie Deitrick, the engineer who oversaw the testing, although some performed a bit more impressively than others.
All the woks we tested measure 12 to 14 inches in diameter (the most common size) and are made of carbon steel, a lightweight and highly conductive material. Some have a smooth interior and others have a hammered one. The smooth ones were easier to clean, but we did not see a difference in cooking performance.
Below, in alphabetical order, are the five top-rated woks from our tests. Read on for details on how CR tests woks. (And check out the essential tools a CR colleague uses to cook Chinese meals like her mom—almost.)
The Babish 14-inch carbon steel wok is flat-bottomed, smooth, and comes pre-seasoned. Its score for cooking evenness was top-notch, and it got a very good mark for speed of heating. The metal section of its handle is short, and so is less likely to be grabbed by unwary cooks. It has a metal helper handle, making it easier to lift (with a potholder) when full. Our testers found it easy to clean and use.
The Kaqinu 12.6-inch carbon steel wok is flat-bottomed, has a hammered texture and comes pre-seasoned. In our tests it aced the cooking evenness test; its speed of heating was very good, and we found it easy to use. Cleaning, however, was a bit of a challenge. The metal section of its handle is short, and so is less likely to be grabbed by unwary cooks. It lacks an extra handle, making it harder to move when full. This wok comes with a wooden lid and a variety of stainless steel utensils.
The Kenmore 14-inch carbon steel wok is flat-bottomed, smooth, and comes pre-seasoned. Like all the woks we tested, cooking evenness was excellent. But the speed at which it heated water was only so-so. The metal section of its handle is short, and so is less likely to be grabbed by unwary cooks. It has a second wooden helper handle that is insulated, making it easier to lift when full.
This Souped Up Recipes 12.5-inch carbon steel wok is flat-bottomed, has a hammered texture and comes pre-seasoned. Like all the woks here, its cooking evenness score was excellent. It was also very good at heating quickly. And like the others, the metal section of its handle is short, and so is less likely to be grabbed by unwary cooks. It lacks a helper handle, which makes it harder to move when full. It comes with a wooden lid and a stainless steel spatula.
The Wok Shop 14-inch carbon steel wok is flat-bottomed, smooth, and requires seasoning before use. Its score for cooking evenness was top-notch, and its speed-of-heating score was very good. The metal section of its handle is short, and so is less likely to be grabbed when you’re cooking. It has a metal helper handle that can get hot, but if you use a potholder, it’s very useful to lift the wok when full.
How We Test Woks
We tested all the woks on a gas range in our range lab. Here are the tests that roll up into our overall scores.
Cooking evenness: We stir-fried rice and chicken kung pao, two dishes you might make in a wok, to see if the food was cooked the same throughout with no raw or overcooked pieces.
Speed of heating: We filled each wok with water and, using the highest BTU burner in our lab, timed how long it took for the water to heat up.
Handle temperature: All of the woks we tested have wooden handles, connected to the wok by a piece of metal. We measured the heat of the metal part to see if it was hot to the touch.
Ease of cleaning: We tested how easy it was to remove food residue after stir frying using just water or water and a stiff brush and/or a non-scratch cleaning pad.
Ease of use: We evaluated the features that make a wok easier to use—if it came seasoned, for example, or whether it has a second helper handle for easy lifting.
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