The Escape Game San Diego (Westfield UTC) — Local services in San Diego

We chose The Escape Game San Diego (UTC) for a date night and got blindsided by a bait-and-switch style booking system. Price: $45 per person— already above other local rooms (Brainy Actz in Mira Mesa is $32 and clearly guarantees a private room). This site never made it plain that our game wouldn’t be private. The booking screen just showed time slots with “5 available,” “4 available,” etc. Nowhere did it clearly say: “You are buying individual tickets to a mixed public game with a max capacity of X— strangers (including children) may be added.”

We booked Prison Break for 7:10 PM at about 5:30. At that moment we were the only names on the slot. No warning, no follow-up email clarifying “Others can still join.” We arrive—and are casually informed a party of five has been added: two parents, an ~8-year-old birthday girl and two of her young friends. So now our “date” is crammed into a prison cell scenario with a children’s mini-party. Spectacular mismatch. Zero consideration for how uncomfortable that is for either side

What made it worse was the staff’s tone-deaf response. No acknowledgment of how awkward, risky, or just plain inappropriate that pairing feels. No proactive offer of options. Instead we got a chipper: “You can all introduce yourselves!” as if forced social mixing between an adult couple and a cluster of little kids in tight quarters is obviously fine. It felt like customer comfort ranked dead last behind squeezing every last seat for revenue

If we had known this could happen we would never have driven to the mall. The pricing + ambiguity reads as intentional obfuscation: maximize headcount first, guest experience second (or not at all). You shouldn’t have to parse vague availability numbers to deduce, “Oh, this isn’t private and capacities differ by room (8 here, 12 there, etc.).” Say it plainly

We walked out feeling misled and then subtly gaslit for objecting. Hard pass. If you want a straightforward, private, respectful escape room night: go elsewhere

The best they offered? “You can wait and see if a private slot opens up.” No guarantee, no discount, no apology. We got drinks at a nearby bar for an hour, finally snagged an empty slot—but only by switching to a different room entirely. That replacement room was… fine. Maybe a 3-star puzzle at best: confusing props, mid-tier and vague puzzles, forgettable story. So even without the initial fiasco this...

Dez, Bryan, Angela, and Rebecca are awesome game masters and staff at the Westfield UTC location! They were respectful, friendly, ridiculously helpful and were keen on not giving hints when they weren't wanted, something we've had issues with at other escape rooms.

My family has done most of the rooms at The Escape Game San Diego and Westfield UTC (all but Playground) and can say we love them all! Every single one is masterfully crafted and we've never had a broken or malfunctioning puzzle. Special Ops and Cosmic Crisis are our favorites at each location and we especially recommend you be with a group you work well with when playing them as teamwork is key. Their difficulty rating is fairly on point too, making it easy for players to choose a room based on experience levels.

My only issue is the fact that the rooms are not private and can become a shared experience if your group doesnt buy all of the slots available and another group chooses to join you. While this is great for those who are super friendly or want to meet new people to play escape games with, it isn't for those who are shy or who play competitively as you never know who you will be booked with. Thankfully, there are so many time slots offered for each room that its only a matter of timing in order to get a room for just your group as we've managed to do. The staff are also very helpful in this respect and will call you to reschedule if you mention the preference when booking.

Overall, I would recommend anyone try the rooms at any The Escape Game location whenever they get a chance as they are well worth the time and at a fair cost. Don't forget to take advantage of their gift cards/player credit after escaping as it definitely saves you quite a bit in the long run if you intend to do more of their rooms at...

We went to the escape room at Westfield for our anniversary. The ruins was by far our most favorite escape room we have ever done, we finished with 12 seconds left! What made this escape room the best was the cohesive game play. A lot of escape rooms clues don't make sense to the overall objective, the ruins was very cohesive. The game flowed very well and all the puzzles lead to one objective which we loved. The game master, Samuel , was amazing! He was so kind and very helpful. What really made this experience top notch was that after we were done Samuel gave us a card wishing us a happy anniversary which the whole staff had signed. Like? That is the most kind thing any place has ever done. The only thing i would recommend is making sure you read the fine print because the rooms are shared unless you buy the time slot for just your party. We messed that up but the receptionist kim was very helpful & SO kind and managed to figure it out for us. It truly was memorable and would HIGHLY recommend the...