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2024 NorCal Escape Rooms Rated (Spoiler-Free)

My husband and I love escape rooms. So much so, in fact, that I started putting together a list of all the local offerings complete with links, pricing and themes. It's proved so useful, I thought others wishing to explore the escape rooms of the Sacramento area might be interested, as well.  ABOUT THE REVIEWS Every franchise offers something a little different, which is great! On this page, I'm mostly detailing the basics, including rooms, cost and general impression. In my full reviews, I try to note what makes each place unique, including but not limited to: costumes, leaderboards, props, photo ops, puzzles, room themes, timers, hints, fun and cost. The vast majority of these places I would happily recommend and return to if they had more rooms to try. Unless otherwise stated, all rooms were played as a team of two (my husband and I). While I will mention a few specifics, I will make sure everything is spoiler-free because I don't want to ruin the fun!  Without further a

Escape Out Escape Room: Spoiler-Free Review

As of April, we have finished every (current) room this venue offers! Most were good fun with thoughtful puzzles, and we'll likely come back in the future as they mentioned replacing one of the rooms with a new one later this year.  Escape Out  - Folsom Time Machine:   2–6 players, Easy/Moderate Single room where you have to self-destruct a faulty time machine. Rated as one of their easiest rooms, but wound up being difficult and unintuitive because of the busy/overwhelming setting and how multiple puzzles/objects did not work as they should. Had potential, but sadly disappointed. Solved with 5 minutes to spare, 3 hints! Heist Society:   2–12 players, Moderate/Challenging Multi-room where you need to break into a secret spy headquarters to retrieve a treasured artifact. Fun theme, good, immersive settings and thoughtful, doable puzzles. We enjoyed the variety of puzzles and clues, and a few clever surprises along the way (no spoilers!). Solved with 6 minutes to spare, 2 hints! Da V

Enchambered Escape Room: Spoiler-Free Review

We finally made it out to the escape room most consistently recommended by other people in our area, and it did not disappoint. As a testament to its quality, Enchambered was also voted best escape room in the nation for 2023!  Enchambered  - Sacramento Rooms:  So far, we've only played the one, but it was great! The settings was completely immersive with sound effects (sometimes on the loud side), fully decorated in the theme of the story which was awesome. Puzzles and props were well-suited for the theme without red herrings. And apparently every room has a pair of gloves as a fun, little Easter egg. Containment Breach:  3 – 8 players, Medium (as rated by venue) An abandoned lab you must explore to discover what happened to the scientist who disappeared...! Puzzles were plentiful, diverse and fun to figure out. Solved with 5 people (and 2 dogs!) with 20 minutes to spare, 3 hints!  Skull Witch:   3–8 players, Expert A witch's hut with spooky (but not scary) vibes and lots of o

Beat the Room Escape Room: Spoiler-Free Review

This is the second venue we explored in our escape room journey, where we brought two other puzzle-loving members of our family for their first escape room experience ever. Once again, we were not disappointed and already look forward to coming back to try all the remaining rooms.  Beat the Room  - Rocklin Rooms:  All the rooms we've tried so far have been fun, immersive and engaging. Some are single room (did not feel cramped) and some are multi-room. Captain’s Quarters:  2–8 players, Intermediate-Beginner (as rated by venue) Pirate-themed single room with great, immersive setting, fun props and plenty of puzzles to occupy four people, though it also would have been doable with two. We finished surprisingly fast, not because the puzzles were overly easy, just because we had a lot of clever people working on them. Solved with 4 people in 25.12 minutes, 0 hints! (Top of the leaderboard!) Bitten: (90 minutes)   4–10 players, Expert Vampire-themed multi-room that was spooky but not sc

Red Door Escape Room: Spoiler-Free Review

As of February 2024, my husband and I have officially finished all the escape rooms at Red Door Sacramento! This was the first venue we went to when starting our escape room quest, and needless to say, it got us hooked.  Below is the comprehensive breakdown of our experience (sans spoilers!) so you can get a feel for what they have to offer.  Red Door Escape Room  - Sacramento  Technically located in Rancho Cordova, this escape room is in the same building as the Old Spaghetti Factory right next to Highway 50. It's part of a franchise so they have other locations across the country, some with different episodes! For now, this review is just about the Sacramento location. Rooms:  Every single room was awesome. The settings were unique and well-tailored to the themes, and every room was technically a multi-room with multiple spaces to explore/escape . Listed in the order we visited... The Gift:  2–8 players, 8/10 difficulty (as rated by the venue) Break into an antique shop to steal

The Triforce of Tastiness: #EatWhatYouWatch

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  Guardian Cake & Classic Nutcake The Legend of Zelda is hands down my favorite game series and nerdy cakes are one of my favorite things to make, so w hen I heard there was a Zelda food contest being hosted by Binging with Babish (#eatwhatyouwatch), I simply could not resist! After considering the many delicious Zelda dishes I could make, I eventually decided to try my hand at the humble Nutcake a la Breath of the Wild. ...But since I also wanted to max out the nerdiness, I decided to make a Guardian (Nut)Cake, as well.  The elusive Goat Butter!  According to the official Zelda recipe, Nutcake only has four ingredients: Any Nut, Goat Butter, Cane Sugar and Tabantha Wheat. The goat butter (a.k.a. #GOAT butter) was by far the hardest thing to track down, but I managed to find some and I'm glad I did. It was fun to work with and had a unique flavor that carried into the final product without being too overbearing. For Tabanth