The Best Woks May Have You Ditching Takeout

Final Verdict

We chose the Craft Wok Carbon Steel Pow Wok as the best overall because it's everything you could want in a restaurant-style wok: a beautiful design, even heating, and the perfect sear. Our tester loved how professional her food looked and tasted. If budget and time are a concern, the T-fal Ultimate Hard-Anodized Nonstick Wok is the perfect choice for quick weeknight family cooking, even if it may not last as long as the Craft.

What Are the Other Options?

Joyce Chen Carbon Steel Nonstick Wok: Not to be confused with the classic carbon steel Joyce Chen wok above, this nonstick version reminded our tester of the T-fal. It was light, easy to work with, and proved to be fully nonstick—even if it seemed pretty cheap. The results were fine: very home-cooked tasting with no intense searing, Ariane notes. The glaze and sauce were also fine, but it was basically the same as if she had made the dish in a nonstick frying pan.

That said, the lid is very helpful for keeping vegetables bright in color: "I just had to pop it on for a minute or two early on in the cooking process," she explains. Unfortunately, there are no instructions for placing the knob on the lid or the handle on the pan, and that could be tricky. "Overall, I think the Joyce Chen Carbon Steel Nonstick Wok is serviceable, but nothing to write home about," Ariane says.

Lodge 14-Inch Cast Iron Wok: If you're thinking you want to do some old-fashioned cooking while crouched over a fire pit or when camping, this 14-inch cast-iron wok could be for you. It's slow to heat due to being so large, but it holds heat quite well once it reaches temperature. However, for home use, our tester suggests going for a carbon steel wok like the Craft instead. "It's like using a big Le Creuset Dutch oven as a wok—it just doesn't make sense," she says of the Lodge, which she found too heavy to use regularly as a wok for home cooking, and it's not a wok you can toss with.

Neither did it produce the great sear and bright flavor other high-quality woks provide. Instead, Ariane says you'll have to use it more as a cast-iron pan than a wok, which, because of its shape, it didn't particularly excel in either, says Ariane. "Things at the bottom cooked more quickly than things at the sides, even though the point of cast iron is that it heats evenly throughout the entire vessel."

How We Tested

We purchased several of our top picks for Ariane Resnick, our writer and tester, so that she could put them to the test in her home kitchen. First, she unboxed each wok and followed manufacturer instructions on how to prep it for use (if applicable), then assessed how easy this was to do. Then, she made a simple stir-fry of broccoli and beef and evaluated the following: how easy it was to toss ingredients while cooking, how quickly and thoroughly the pan heated up and cooked the food, whether the beef got a nice sear and the stir-fry got that distinctive wok flavor (or close to it), whether the food stuck, and how easy it was to clean.

After testing, Ariane submitted feedback about what she liked and didn't like about each wok and rated each on the following features: Unboxing, Durability, Heat Retention, Features, Design, Effectiveness, and Overall Value. Learn more about how we test products.

What to Look for When Buying a Wok

Seasoning

The wok may seem like an advanced cook's tool, but it's actually very convenient for the beginner, provided that they season the wok well (if you have a cast-iron wok, see our recommendations for seasoning). All cooks who enjoy convenient, efficient cooking that takes less time and oil, producing a better product, will enjoy using a wok.

The wok improves with age and experience—both its own and yours. After it's properly seasoned, a wok is the consummate stir-frying tool for quick, delicious meals. It can also aptly deep-fry a small amount of food. Depending upon your wok's size, you can use your wok to perform other tasks, like poaching, steaming, scrambling, simmering, and even smoking.

Material and Size

When looking for a wok, consider a carbon steel wok rather than a nonstick one. Carbon steel is better for even heat retention and wok hei, the particular smoky flavor that a real wok gives to the food. Some woks do not work for electric or induction stoves, so be sure to check before ordering.

Considering that the bottom of the wok is where most of the food will cook, you'll want an appropriately sized wok. We recommend a wok of 13 to 14 inches for the average home cook, but a 12- or 12.5-inch wok may work well for one person cooking for themselves. If you'd like to cook large whole fish, choose a massive wok of around 20 inches, but be aware that it will take up more space in your kitchen than a smaller wok and may not fit a standard size range. Additionally, a flat-bottom wok will be easier with a typical Western range than a round-bottom wok.

Accessories

To properly utilize your wok, consider buying a Chinese ladle, a wok spatula, a slotted spoon, and a bamboo wok brush. These tools are not absolutely essential, but they do help you love using your wok. The Chinese ladle has a bowl angle perfect for scooping oil and sauces into the pan, as well as for pre-mixing them. A wok spatula is wider than the average spatula and fans out like a shovel so that it can easily scoop out and move food around the wok, while a slotted spoon helps you skim meat or veggies out of the oil without taking a ton of grease with you. A bamboo wok brush cleans the wok efficiently without damaging it or removing too much of the seasoning.

FAQs

What type of wok do Chinese restaurants use?

Chinese restaurants typically use carbon steel woks, such as the Craft and Wok Shop choices here. Carbon steel requires seasoning, unlike nonstick, but this isn't much of an inconvenience if you use the wok frequently, as Chinese restaurants do. They become more nonstick the longer you use and season them, and they will change color from silver to a dark charcoal over time.

The goal in Chinese stir-fry cooking is to achieve "wok hei," which translates to "breath of a wok." This refers to the unique smoky flavor that comes together from the combination of high heat, strong caramelization, and the seasoned fat or oil that coats the pan. Carbon steel woks are able to create this result more easily than other materials.

Which is better: a round-bottom wok or a flat-bottom wok?

If you have a gas or electric stove, flat-bottom woks are the easiest and sturdiest to work with. They won't feel wobbly, and they won't reflect heat back onto the range. You'll be able to use them similar to how you are already used to using a frying pan or soup pot, and there won't be too much of a learning curve. As long as you follow proper instructions, you shouldn't have much difficulty getting a solid stir-fry on one of your first tries.

Round-bottom woks can be used on gas or electric, and are made more straightforward if you add a wok ring, but the ring can put enough distance between the heat source and the wok to impede the fast, high-heat cooking that woks are known for being able to provide.

Do woks work on induction hobs?

Yes, you can use a wok with an induction hob. You'll want to choose a flat-bottom wok because induction hobs are completely flat. If you want to use a round-bottom wok on an induction stove, you'll need to add a wok ring, which will create distance between the hob and the pan. Since induction works by moving heat into cookware directly, trying to use a round-bottom wok with a wok ring isn't advisable, as it likely won't lead to even cooking. Use a flat-bottom wok on an induction hob in the same manner you would use any other pot or pan, but with a bigger focus on high heat if you're stir-frying with it.

Why Trust Simply Recipes?

Dakota Kim is a freelance writer and former restaurant owner who has tested many cookware items both for articles and for her restaurant. She swears by her Craft Wok Pow Wok. Of the many woks she has owned, it's the only one she has purchased more than once and even traveled with, and it's the only wok her veteran cook mother uses when she comes to visit.

Ariane Resnick is a special diet chef and certified nutritionist who began cooking protein and vegetable stir-fries as soon as she learned how to cook, and has continued to do so for the duration of her two-decade culinary career. She loves to make vegetables exciting for home cooks, and knows that adding some sizzle and char work better than nearly anything else for that purpose. Ariane ate a whole lot of broccoli and beef to test these woks, but she definitely isn't complaining about that.

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