Room Escape Artist

Swimming with the fishes

Location: Prague, Czechia

Date Played: May 24, 2026

Team Size: 2-5; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 75 minutes

Price: 2390 CZK per team (or about $114 per team)

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: There are stairs into the building, and something to step over inside the game.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Escape Bar was a blast from the past. This felt like the kind of game that we would have really liked in 2015. While I cannot say that this is intended as a compliment (2015 was a long time ago), it did have a certain nostalgic charm to it.

Escape Bar felt old because the set was decorated just enough to make it clear what each space within the game was supposed to be, without actually feeling like the genuine article. This old-school sensation was further supported by an obtuseness to its cluing. The puzzles felt like they didn’t quite want to be solved. This was pretty standard back in the day.

Additionally, there was an edginess to the game that felt very 2015.

If you were playing escape rooms back in the early years, Escape Bar feels like seeing an old friend who hasn’t changed a bit in more than a decade… but you have. It’s fun to grab a drink, reminisce, and then leave to reflect on whether it’s crazier that you have changed so much… or that they seem frozen in time.

And if you weren’t playing escape rooms back in the early years, Escape Bar is a chance to time travel to a bygone era.

Either way… and I can’t believe I’m saying this… I kind of recommend Escape Bar to seasoned escape room players. I’m not so confident that it’s worth a visit for new players. However, if you’re a connoisseur of the medium, Escape Bar is a time portal that’s worth stepping into for an hour.

Who is this for?

• Players who want to see what a true old-school escape room looked like
• Any experience level
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• It might check something off of your escape room bingo card
• It does a lot of things that really would have impressed in the early days of escape rooms

Story

We had heard that this was an interesting bar, and that the proprietor was a big deal. So we made a reservation.

Setting

Escape Bar opened inside of a bare-bones bar. The space had the shape of a bar, but due to a lack of detailing or personality, it never felt like a bar.

Subsequent spaces were more variable in how compelling they felt.

Mostly the game looked and felt like it was from an extremely early era of escape rooms.

Gameplay

EscapeTheRoom.cz’s Escape Bar was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, and solving puzzles.

Analysis

➕ After we got situated, Escape Bar surprised us with a cold start. As a traveling player who often arrives at an escape room with a heavy backpack or needing the bathroom, this is my favorite type of cold start, where the game starts without notice, but only once we are ready.

➕/➖ One early puzzle turned into a nifty reveal, but it was clued through a horrible noise that was uncomfortable and nonsensical.

➖ Some of the cluing was so faded that it was almost illegible.

➖ The story was menacing in name only. (Ok, we didn’t know that at the onset, but in the second act, it got dark and we needed to escape the bar.) However, we never felt any danger or pressure. There was no soundtrack, or any way to build energy. The pace of the game was slow.

➕/➖ Escape Bar added new time pressure partway through the experience. This was a much needed boost, but the way in which this occurred lacked any sense of drama.

➕ Escape Bar emphasized a particular prop early in the experience, and it proved pivotal later on.

➖ The set was heavily damaged. It was nearly impossible to tell what damage was relevant (and, narratively, some of it was important.)

➕/➖ The ending was dynamic. We escaped! However, the plot didn’t resolve.

➕/➖ Partway through the game, Escape Bar checked something off our escape room bucket list. Honestly, we’re unsure how we feel about this being in an escape room. But it was there! After fishing around, we determined that it even added challenge to the gameplay. This was amusing, and in our experience the challenge was not insurmountable, although we can see a scenario where it could be. It’s a highly variable thing.

Tips For Visiting

• This game is available in Czech or English.
• We enjoyed cocktails at SIPSTER Cocktail Bar & Fondue, which is right next door to the game.

Book your hour with EscapeTheRoom.cz’s Escape Bar, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.