Review: Undercooked, Omescape, Sunnyvale, CA
Fun Factor 9
Omescape
1135 E Arques Ave, Sunnyvale, CA
Date we played: August 23, 2025
Booking size 2 to 6 (we recommend 4 to 6)
Game time: 75 Minutes
Objective: Manage the kitchen of a celebrity chef – find their recipes and the ingredients to make as many of their signature dishes as you can.
Horror Theme: No
Difficulty: Intermediate/Advanced
Our Experience
We had a terrific time playing Undercooked at Omescape’s Sunnyvale location and enthusiastically recommend it, awarding it a Fun Factor of 9. If you love puzzles — lots of them — this room delivers. The design offers a trove of varied, satisfying challenges that call for observation, scavenging, pattern recognition, and a bit of creative thinking. You can set your own pace, but if you lean into the story — as we did — you’ll feel that delightful urgency to serve as many hungry customers as possible. It’s a fast-paced, high-energy experience that plays out like a culinary frenzy in puzzle form. Undercooked has also earned worldwide recognition, appearing on the TERPECA Top 100 list in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
The concept is charming: the kitchen staff has gone missing right before a major restaurant opening, so you’re drafted to step in and create as many dishes as possible. Orders appear on a central console, each recipe calling for three ingredients. Your mission is twofold: locate recipes across the space and retrieve the correct components — sometimes sitting right where you’d expect, other times tucked behind clever puzzle layers.
This format lends itself beautifully to parallel solving. Groups can split up, regroup, swap puzzles, and cheer each other on as the orders stack up. It’s a lively, collaborative experience — a “controlled frenzy” in the best way — and there’s plenty to do for everyone. While the escape objective is straightforward and achievable, the real challenge lies in how many puzzles your group can complete before time runs out. We enjoy this style of room that gives us lots of content without requiring every puzzle to be solved. We’ve seen a similar mechanic in “heist”-themed rooms where teams aim to grab as many high-value items as possible for a final score. We play more for the puzzles than the scoreboard — and with so much content here, it may be plausible for the same team to return, mix up who solves what, and enjoy a fresh second round.
Difficulty, Flow & Pacing
We were told there are 26 puzzles in this room; our team completed 25. One puzzle unfortunately could not be solved due to a broken mechanism — something we were only able to determine after considerable effort. While this understandably caused frustration, both the volume and quality of the remaining content were strong enough that it still earned a Fun Factor of 9.
There was also a moment of confusion with a combination format that slowed us down — worth noting so future players remember to clarify combination conventions early. That said, the room’s overall flow is energetic and rewarding. The set is charming and full of thematic detail, from spices and produce to cookware and kitchen appliances — including a very on-theme oven that comes into play.
Theme & Set
The theme is executed with charm and humor. Everything you handle fits the world of a busy restaurant kitchen, and the designers make clever use of common items in inventive, puzzle-forward ways. This is a classic puzzle-dense room with plenty of tactile interaction and fun discoveries.
Note that there is one puzzle that requires a teammate to crawl into a confined space for a bit, and you can expect some searching in low or tucked-away areas.
Team Size & Player Tips
This is one of those experiences where content is king, and we strongly recommend at least four players. With six, everyone still has meaningful work to do; smaller teams will enjoy it but won’t see the full breadth of the room’s puzzles.
Special “bonus” dishes periodically appear offering extra “revenue” — a fun wrinkle. We found it best not to over-commit the whole team to those unless they lined up naturally with where we already were.
Hint System: Traditional, with GM guidance when needed. Mostly responsive, though there was one stretch of silence during a format hiccup.
Final Thoughts
If you enjoy puzzle-heavy rooms, parallel solving, and the thrill of racing through a delightful buffet of challenges, Undercooked is absolutely worth your time. It’s energetic, clever, and immersive in a cheerful, non-stressful way. We walked out smiling — and a little hungry.
We highly recommend Undercooked at Omescape Sunnyvale. If you play, let them know you found them through Fun Factor Escape Room Reviews — and drop us a note to share your score!
This location hosts eight games, and we plan to share additional reviews from our visit in future Fun Factor posts. Parking is easy, and we met several of their hosts — all friendly, enthusiastic, and clearly passionate about the games.
Have fun — and don’t burn the soufflé!
