EscapeSF

This was our first escape room experience and we absolutely loved it! My boyfriend and I escaped the antique room and we found it challenging. I loved that this facility allowed for smaller groups (2 – 5 people). Next time we will go with more people but it was absolutely doable with the two of us. The gentleman running the place was super friendly and patient in explaining everything! We can’t wait to go back and try the other rooms!

5 of us enjoy great time with this new Theme. Make sure you check every detail in the room. The struggles of Blind Tiger is real! 5 stars.

This was… AWESOME! I’ve been to only one other escape room game in LA. And that one was really cool too. But this was even better.
My cousins and I did the Blind Tiger room. And Zach the Game Keeper was an awesome host. He said that this room is the hardest out of the three they have.
We booked our room the same day, 4hrs prior really. You can pay through PayPal as you book. Pretty neat. Place looks sketch because it’s wedged between a cleaners and some other store. But I like that you have to be buzzed in. The door isn’t just open to the public.
I think what was pretty cool is the price of their rooms. Especially for the quality of the game, seriously sweet deal. It’s like $ 129 per room? Split it between 2 – 5 people, perfect.
So they have free lockers (they’re about 4×4?) to put your stuff in, and you can hold the key, which is a plus.
I HIGHLY recommend the Blind Tiger room. And without giving any information about it (duh), I would say pretty hard. I think if you don’t know how these games work, you might not be as active in finding clues or think of what can be used as a clue or get how to put two and two together.
As of 12-​22-​2015 Zach said that there have been only two groups who have successfully made it out of the room with NO HINTS. Sadly our team wasn’t one of them. We had 4 hints total. And passed by literally the last few seconds.
As a person who LOVES Escape Room games (I will pay for apps on the phone), this was definitely on «Hard Mode». I was super disappointed that we had to use hints… But I think it’s super doable, just gotta be an explorer, and think outside the box! Good luck guys, and «Happy escaping!»

I had no expectations going into this. None of us in our group of 6 had done an escape room game before. I’m so glad I tried it! It was SO much fun!
We did the ‘Antique Room’ and successfully escaped within the 60 minute time frame. To be exact we did it in 50 minutes with 6 people, so it’s definitely not easy. The challenge and puzzles are created really well and worth the money. We had to ask for a hint twice, there is a video camera and speaker in the room so if you get stuck they can help you with clues.
I definitely want to go back and try the Escape from Alcatraz and Blind Tiger rooms next!

This was my first ever Escape room and I had a great time! We did the Alcatraz room. I really enjoyed that it was not just one room, but a series of rooms, so you really felt the progress along the way. We needed a few more hints than I would have liked, but figured out a bunch of stuff without hints, so I think we did pretty good for our first time. After the fact I realized that it reminded me a lot of doing the dungeons in the Zelda games, which I LOVE and now that I’ve got a better sense of how they work, I’m enthusiastic to try it again! Definitely recommend, though I probably wouldn’t take more than 4 people, we only had 2 and that actually felt right. I think 5 would feel crowded, though I’m sure you’ll finish the puzzles faster with more brains.

So fun! They have a new room «Blind Tiger,» which based on prohibition era rum running. Enjoyed this as a work team building event.

I brought in a group of 11(my boss, his direct reports, and myself) this past Friday night for part of our holiday party night out on the town. Our group was broken up into two groups and we had to escape from each room. We were all in need of clues through out our trying to Escape, but it was definitely a great team building event, as we all had to work together. The feedback that I received from the rest of the group was positive and many want to check out the other rooms as well. I highly recommend EscapeSF to all & we will be using them in the future. :-)

Easy to book and helpful/​knowledgeable staff who wanted to make sure we enjoyed the game!
We had a group of 10 so we split up between Alcatraz and the Blind Tiger room. I was in Alcatraz. Sadly we couldn’t really compare notes with the other team since we didn’t want to ruin the surprise, so I don’t really know what Blind Tiger is like!
I’ve only done one other escape room; this one was definitely different. The first one I did had like 3x more puzzles, so it took us the whole time to solve clues and puzzles. I felt a little helpless in Alcatraz — the clues were fewer and more obscure, so we spent a lot of time retracing steps and trying things that didn’t work, so that was a bit frustrating.
But overall, the group had a good time and I’m still gonna go to more rooms! I love the feeling of solving and finding something new :)

We did the Alcatraz room and it was freakin awesome. Definitely hard to find this place because it’s kinda hidden in Chinatown and it’s just a small glass door on the outside.
Highly recommend this place to everyone looking to have a new and different experience outside of the usual. It’s worth the trip.

After having done 18 escape games, here is my ranking:
1 Palace Games Great Houdini Escape (San Francisco — Palace of Fine Arts)
2 EscapeSF Antique Room (San Francisco)
3 EscapeSF Blind Tiger (San Francisco)
4 EscapeSF Alcatraz (San Francisco)
5 Omescape Forgotten Treasure (Oakland — Richmond)
6 Omescape Penitentiary (Oakland — Richmond)
7 Omescape Omega (Oakland — Richmond)
8 Lockdown Vegas Mob Boss (Las Vegas)
9 Lockdown Vegas Hostage (Las Vegas)
10 Puzzlephant Mr E’s Elaborate Enigma (San Francisco — Mission)
11 San Jose Room Escape Escape from Alcatraz (San Jose)
12 San Jose Room Escape Myth Room (San Jose)
13 Escape Game 911 Police Station (Santa Clara)
14 The Basement LA Basement (Los Angeles — Sylmar)
15 PaniQ Room Prison Break (San Francisco — Tenderloin)
16 PaniQ Room Sicko (San Francisco — Tenderloin)
17 PaniQ Room Geek (San Francisco — Tenderloin)
18 Beyond Escape LLC Zombie (San Francisco — SOMA)

We went here to celebrate our friend’s birthday and opted for the Antique Room. The puzzles were interesting in a complex sort of way — sometimes we didn’t know exactly how it all came together which is great to have someone with a bird’s eye who can sort of nudge you in the right direction. Especially when you miss something. We enjoyed the puzzles and managed to finish the room — which was a great way to spend our friend’s birthday. A very enjoyable experience, I think any of us would recommend this joint.

With a group of 4 other friends, we completed the Antique Room challenge! Here’s how the day went.
1. Reserve your date and time (no changes, no refunds, so pick wisely)
2. Show up ~15 minutes early. The door was locked. We called a number at the doorbell and someone came down immediately to greet us.
3. Our guide gave us release waivers and explained how the game worked. I liked how he presented the game in an interesting way and pulled us into the story. He was also happy to answer any questions.
4. Game: No spoilers here but just remember — look everywhere (disperse the team initially), try everything, and it’s all about patterns/​numbers/​words/​pictures. We didn’t need any clues and finished in about 45 minutes! If you do need a clue though, just wave at the camera and the voice will appear over the speaker system.
5. Once you get out, they walk through the game (again happy to answer followup questions) and take your picture.
We got our deal through living social, but it looks like the regular price is ~$ 125 per team depending on the day of the week and time. I think it’s a fair price for a unique experience, but I do wish it were a little more complex/​longer. I definitely recommend getting a full team of five (that way you’re only at ~$ 25/​pp – so like a lunch!).
If you’re here early, I recommend walking around Chinatown and picking up a snack.

Something new and exciting to do with friends! We escaped from Alcatraz with our group of 5 and could not have had a better experience. The rules were clear and the game was well-​designed and thought-​provoking! We came out SOOO excited and talked about it for days! It will animate you! Give it a try!
Close to a ton of restaurants and bars to re-​hash your escape techniques over cocktails. We can’t wait to come back and do the Antique Room!

This Escape the Room was pretty fun. It’s not like some of the other rooms where you are doing Sudoku puzzles in a room. You’re actually locked in a room and you have to interact heavily with the environment to escape!
I won’t give too much away but it was quite fun! You have to work together with your team to do a lot of the puzzles.
The facilities themselves are kinda weird though. There were multiple large cockroaches around the floor which was pretty gross.

It was my first time playing the escape games so I didn’t really know what to expect! I assume it was a Monk/​Sherlock Homes kinda game. The staff were very nice & give very clear instructions. We did the Alcatraz one. We managed to escape with 3 mins & 26 seconds left to spare. It was challenging but fun at the same time. Literally THINK outside the BOX! I highly recommend this game! I can’t wait to play more of these escape games in the future. BIG TIP; make sure your teammates are smart. Seriously.
The place kinda hard to find because it’s not hella obvious where the location is at, but it’s across the street from the 1 bus stop next to the sushi restaurant on the corner of Kerney & Sacramento Street.

What a great idea for an out of the ordinary experience smack dab in the middle of San Francisco!
I’ve never done any other room escape games before so I have nothing to compare this to but everything about it was well thought out and authentic. They offer two games, an Escape from Alcatraz one and an Escape from the Antique Room. We got a groupon for the Escape from Alcatraz one and I’m so glad we did!
Located on Kearny Street on the line of the Financial District and Chinatown, I know this neighborhood very well. I used to live a block away on Commercial Street so it was fun to be back in my old hood! However, if you’re not familiar with the area it may be hard to find. The sign on the door isn’t the clearest.
So, after you wait a couple min and sign a waiver, its down to the game! I won’t give anything away about the details of the game other than some clues are obvious and some are really hard.
I can’t wait to try more room escape games now. Thanks for the great experience!

3 stars for the fun.
2 stars for the representative who gave us the lowdown on the rules and whatnots.
I’m a fan of the escape games. I was lured in one day by the clean graphics. I have played just about everything mobigrow has put out there, and then some. When I learned there are real time, real life escape games, I jumped for joy!
So — as a belated bday gift to myself, I nabbed that groupon deal (or was it living social?) and took my husband and daughter to try one out!
We were received by a nice guy — but his communication skills lacked so much that it became a task to listen to him. I mean no disrespect. He was friendly and nice. He really was. But — he was representing this company, and it was his one job to communicate to us what the rules were and what we could expect. I was putting words into his mouth every other second because he just couldn’t get them out, and words he did get out were jumbled and rolled up into one incoherent uttering mess. Again — I am not trying to be mean here. But you have to take my word for it. It was fairly disappointing, considering he was supposed to tell us a story that included clues about the room we were going into. Had I paid full price for this, I would have been pissed.
BUT — as it was, we went on w/​the adventure. We didn’t find the Mona Lisa within the one hour allotted time frame, but we had fun. We needed a few clues to complete the puzzle.
Husband is eager to do another one. I am too. Daughter did pretty well, but she kind of lazed out halfway through. The hour went by much faster for us than it did for her.
Each room is interactive You try to open a box — it seems perfectly logical that it should open — but it won’t. At least, not until you move something else around in the room that triggers the sensor to open the box, which contains a clue to get you closer to solving the puzzle. They use magnets, wires, sensors, etc.
There’s a camera in the room. If they see you having a hard time and time’s a-​waisting, they’ll ask if you want a clue and you can decline or accept.
Once your time is up, or you’ve solved the puzzle — whichever comes first — they walk you through the entire thing, which is pretty neat.
After leaving, all I wanted to do was wash my hands. You have to touch EVERYTHING… and so have the countless number of people who were there before you.
Maybe offering handi-​wipes or hand sanitizer on the way out would be a nice touch.

My second time ever doing an Escape room and I would say EscapeSF is AMAZING! Hands down. The location doesn’t stick out too much but you can’t really miss it on Kearny! You can take public transportation or even drive and park at that underground parking lot of the play ground if you’d like.
I got a LivingSocial deal and thought, why not! $ 80 is a steal. Especially since the weekend evening price was $ 139 or something. But hence the fact when you purchase the deal that they have restricting days for certain pricing! Following the instructions of booking your reservation is super easy, but I was a little confused if Antique room was the only option for booking or if the link provided to book had Antique’s page as default trying to book a time with EscapeSF. So we ended up doing the Antique room and LOVED IT! Though my friends (3 others) and I didn’t succeed, I had tons of fun!
The main reason why I give this place 4 stars instead of 5 is because there was a few times where my friends and I had no idea what triggered us to solving some of the puzzles… Sometimes they would just happen. I guess I’m just comparing my first experience of doing an escape room and they had where you had to unlock a bunch of stuff so I was expecting that but nonetheless, this concept was SICK.
P. S.: Tiffany and Allison were awesome employees! Getting us started and answered our questions in the end. AND they’re coming out with a third room — Blind Tiger — coming out in August!!! I can’t wait to go back!

Came here with my dad, boyfriend and brother after trying an escape room in San Diego. We were unsuccessful at that place so we were determined to try and escape to one in SF. We tried the Alcatraz room and finished with 18 min left on the clock. Not going to spoil this with hints but all I can tell you is everyone needs to work together and also separately so you have adequate time to complete this. Its part physical and the rest mental. Most of the clues are right in front of you so don’t sweat it and overthink too much. Think and act like a prisoner ;)

My BF and I saw an ad for their escape rooms and I got excited about the Alcatraz one. Yes, I live in SF and I have been to Alcatraz. Multiple times. Mainly with tourist friends and family members. Anyways…
We signed up for a session and went with the roommates last Saturday. I’ve only gone to one Scrap Escape Game (The Auction House) and didn’t make it out but I’ve been told I’d enjoy the room style more. The roommates have done a lot of these types of games and love puzzles. So, we decided that they’d pull the weight for the group. :p
What I loved:
It is actually interactive! You’re cuffed in, you have to hunt for stuff and clue and actually use your body parts and not just your brains (the other styles use a lot of pen-​paper puzzles) so everyone in the group could do something.
The atmosphere was good. The game designers and architects tried their best to recreate a jail-​like environment in a Chinatown building. Hats off to their props too. Real stuff they got there.
What I wished was different:
Maybe make it slightly harder. When we opened the last door, we didn’t realize that was it. It was… too short. I walked out expecting there to be more but there wasn’t. Reading the response that they wanted families with children to do well too, it makes sense.
So, we set a record time for that room (19 mins 48 secs). That felt awesome! We’ll be back for the other room in the near future.
We semi-​joked that we’d to test their future rooms to see if they ask. They have potential to be the more interactive escape room.
Good job, guys!