Puzzle Workshop Escape Room Costa Mesa

Ive been to 4 different escape rooms around the world and this is definitely one of the better ones. The puzzles are straightforward and fun. We barely made it out and had a blast. Pro tip: they let byob so have a beer or cup (no glass allowed) of wine before to loosen up

This place was great. Three of us had done one escape room before and two were newbies. Everyone had a great time. The puzzles were challenging and varied, and some required teamwork, which was great. Our game master, Brian, was also fantastic. We will be back to try another room!

Our Gamemaster Markus was a wonderful host and took great care of us. We did CSI: Hollywood - puzzles were challenging but not impossible. Props were quality, pre-game preparation properly set the stage for 60 minutes of mind-wracking fun for our group of 4, including one newbie. All had fun. We even got mini Kodak photos to take home as souvenirs. Highly recommend!!!

My very first escape room was time travel themed and comic nerd and 80s enthusiast friendly. We beat it with over 20 minutes left and used 2 clues. Hearing that we beat a large percentage of players boosted my ego.

Weve done now 3 of the 4 escape rooms. Last night we did at the Puzzle Workshop Escape Room The Mission to the Stars. It was by far the toughest of the ones weve done. Crysta [ I think ] and the other 2 game masters were really welcoming and helpful, they helped make it a really wonderful time. Go and try them youll enjoy them if you like challenges....and this one was very cerebral.... bring your thinking cap:)

We wanted to do a team-building activity for a group of 4. None of us had done an escape room before. We decided to go with Puzzle Workshop near SNA airport and chose their Trapped in Time escape room. I dont think weve ever had this much collaboration and fun together as a team. There were different levels of puzzles and codes, and some surprises (but I wont tell you more!). Perfect mix to keep the whole experience interesting and make the time just fly by! The experience itself was quite exhilarating...
Read full review! And yes: we escaped. They give you good instructions before-hand, explain how the mechanism of particular locks that might be in the room work, so you dont need any special experience. Even if youre a rookie like us, youll get debriefed enough that you can take this challenge on! Highly recommend. Will definitely come here again for one of their other rooms.

My first experience with an escape room. We did the Trapped in Time experience. Had fun with my sister, brother in law and nephews. You can have a group up to 7. Great puzzles. Made it out with 23 seconds to spare.

Tried the illuminati room, absolutely loved it! The theme and puzzles were amazing. I especially loved all the unique technology - some of the tech was totally mind blowing. The owner told me to come back and try their new room, which I plan to do the next time in Irvine. Highly recommended!

Everyone working here was incredibly helpful and friendly. Some of the best customer service I have had in any room anywhere in the country. As for the rooms themselves, they were a delightful mix of classic escape room puzzles and feels with innovative technology and clever twists.

We did the Trapped in Time puzzle room here. The puzzles were innovative and unique, Ive done four or five escape rooms now and the ideas they had were new to me and my group. The reason Im not giving five is because there werent enough puzzles for a large group to constantly have something to work on. We only had five people but there were a few times when we all stared at the same thing. They said rated it an easy room and I would say that is accurate. If you havent done a lot of escape rooms before this would be a good place to start.

Awesome escape room, very well done. Went with a group of 6 and we all enjoyed the experience. I look forward to coming back and trying the harder rooms. If your considering going bring at least 4 people 6 is better so you can sort it out in the hour provided.

Very fun puzzle room with some unique puzzles. It was par for the course in difficulty (I ran the illuminati room, and the CSI is supposed to be equivalent). We were able to solve the room in 59 minutes with two veterans and 4 newbies. Staff was nice and accommodating and provided an overall great Fathers Day experience for our whole group.

My family of 4 are total noobs to escape rooms and we took on the Illuminati and had a good time. The rules were clearly explained, the decor was immersive, and the puzzles werent too complex. They were kind enough to give us an extra 10 minutes but we didnt finish in time so no chicken dinner for us. To give you an idea of difficulty, a family of 4, two adults and two young teens (none of us had previous escape room experience) made it to the next to last puzzle in 70 minutes. This was a most excellent adventure!

Great escape room, perfect for beginners and vets alike. I came here last month with my cowrokers, many of which had zero previous escape room experience but everyone had a moment where they contributed to the group and we finished the room with plenty of time to spare. I can only speak to the trapped in time room but it was well made and a fun theme. The staff was great as well, very passionate about creating a great room. I plan on coming back with my new escape team to try the CSI Hollwood room soon!

Great experience! Illuminati Room was quite enjoyable, with a mix of puzzles that challenged you in a variety of ways. Puzzles were very diverse, requiring communication, dexterity, critical thinking, or just plain old searching. Overall, a great experience!

Great experience. Puzzles were challenging enough to keep us engaged and not so hard that we gave up.

We took my grandson here for his birthday. He is 11 going on 14. We did Trapped in Time with no modifications for kids, and we were all newbies It was a total blast. Our family loves puzzles and brain games, but it was really challenging so Im glad we went with a beginner level room. Our game master Shantelle was awesome too. We are already planning our next visit!

I have done escape rooms at a couple of locations, including 3 at Puzzle Workshop. On Friday night, we did their Mission to the Stars room. It was a bit different from the typical room, and was challenging and fun. (We did escape.) The staff here are polite, pleasant, and helpful. They do their best to ensure that their groups have a good experience, and they share the joy of a successful encounter. Their rooms are private, so there is no worry about being grouped with strangers. I highly recommend this place for a fun event with friends.

My husband and I completed 3 escape rooms (CSI: Hollywood, Traped in Time, Illuminati) and all 3 or them were great! We are not native English speakers but it was never a problem (only 1 puzzle was challenging due to the language barrier) so I encourage everyone to believe in themselves and try their escape rooms! Game masters are welcoming, fun and very attentive. So far, they have the best escape rooms compared to other places weve been in OC and Boston. Great job!

This was our very first escape room and we loved it! Blaze was a great host. He explained what to expect, and gave us helpful suggestions. The room was amazing, and the puzzles were challenging. We would highly recommend the Puzzle Workshop!!!

Delilah was our game master was very friendly and very helpful! We have done over 20 escape rooms and the Trapped in Time room was extremely fun with a retro feel and will definitely make you feel nostalgic about the 80s, 90s! Will come back!!

My friends and I have been to a few escape rooms and this was the best one! The employees were fantastic - friendly, welcoming, helpful (we needed a few hints) and created a great overall experience. The room was challenging (yet escape-able), team oriented, creative and most importantly, FUN! Definitely visit and and enjoy!

My company went here for a team building exercise - we had a group of 20, and this place was able to schedule it so we all had a good time! Clever puzzles (the owners are professional game designers) and nicely themed with good music. Definitely recommend for co-workers or friends - so much fun! I plan to come back with my family to do their other room.

This was one of the best escape rooms I have ever done! We were in the Scarlet Starlet room and man, those were some innovative puzzles! The decorations were on point and the and the puzzles were full of surprises. What a blast! I will definitely be going again soon.

I initially chose Puzzle workshop out of the handful of escape rooms with great reviews in Orange County due to their being one of the few with a willingness to accommodate custom times. Sure, it cost a little extra, but I had 12 people to herd around a very tight schedule that day, and Kym was absolutely instrumental in helping me make it all work. I initially booked 2 simultaneous rooms (6 people for each room) at a custom time with Kym. Then I suddenly had 2 people drop out 3 days...
Read full review before the event. Then I had nearly everyone drop out of the scheduled event after the escape rooms. Then I had the wild idea to try and book a third escape room immediately after the first two in its place instead, and then tried to figure out if I had enough people interested ... all of this literally the night before we were supposed to show up at Puzzle Workshop. And at each new development, I was calling Kym trying to keep her updated and exploring our options and backup plans. Kym was such a sweetheart through all of this. She was very quick to respond, even in the evening. She fielded all of my last-min updates with aplomb and good cheer. She helped me figure out how we could use the credit from the people who dropped out of the first two rooms to apply to the third, and applied roundabout discounts using gift card specials that ultimately saved us 20%. She was quick to grasp the logistical details, and at every new development, she assured me, Well make it work. As someone who works in operations, I appreciated immensely her grasp of details, organizational skills, and patience. As for the puzzles themselves, the first two rooms (Illuminati and CSI) nearly kicked our butts! Our two teams literally escaped only seconds apart, just 3-4 minutes before the hour was up. We mixed our veterans and newbies, so we werent at our most efficient, but the rooms were definitely a fun challenge. The last room, the Time travel, we finished much faster. Probably a combination of us now being primed, and also our team now having shrunk to our usual tried-and-true veterans, making us much more efficient. Overall, a very professional and fun experience. I really like that they understand how to run a business as well as putting together a good puzzle room. I would be absolutely delighted to visit them again after theyve turned over their current rooms.

Out of the 25+ escape rooms Ive done, the 2 Ive tried at Puzzle Workshop (Illuminati & Trapped In Time) are 2 of my favorites! Top 5 for sure. Their new room, Trapped In Time, is extremely nostalgic & tons of fun! Their rooms are the best Ive seen at combining excellent puzzles with awesome immersion without sacrificing one for the other. Even though were coming from over an hour away, weve already made the trip out there 2 seperate times because their rooms are so worth it, & will definitely be back to try the 3rd!

This is was the best escape room Ive ever done! The puzzles were well done and not overly complicated. Everyone in our group had something to do and there were no stragglers. Cant wait to come back for the new rooms!

Tons of fun! We did the Illuminati puzzle and had a great time. The puzzles are well designed and there was plenty for our group to do. Definitely excited to do another room here!

Had a great time with my kids at room! The staff is so friendly - amazing customer service. Loved the puzzles and technology. Will definitely come back to check out their other room.

Having not done any escape rooms in my life, I was very pleased with how things turned out for my first experience in an escape room. I was able to play all three rooms: Secrets of the Illuminati, CSI: Hollywood, & Trapped in Time. Now keep in mind that I have never played an escape room before so I was not expecting anything specific. First thing I noticed was how different the building looked. I wasnt sure if this was how all escape rooms looked like but the outside of the building looked like...
Read full review an office to me, which was strange but didnt bother me at all. Walking up the stairs I was confronted with a front desk and a very office-like atmosphere, which added onto the slight weirdness, but then again, I wasnt too bugged by it. I went to the side of Secrets of the Illuminati and CSI: Hollywood (there were 2 suites; Trapped in Time on the other side). The staff were very friendly and debriefed our missions which added onto the hype of my expectations. I was promptly directed to my room and the fun began. All three escape rooms had their own vibe and a very well-designed appearance filled with puzzles and props. All of the rooms had a television that displayed hints (you get to have unlimited hints). Personally felt that the Illuminati room was the hardest but all of the rooms gave you a wonderful time; be prepared to use your brains because mine was fried after not one but three rooms. All in all, visit this place if youre looking for a great time to spend with friends solving intricate themed-puzzles.