The Grid: a new immersive drinking experience

What is the Grid? Part cocktail making, part escape room, definitely a full-on experience! From the people behind ABQ this was sure to be a great experience.  I joined the team from Love Pop Ups London to experience Neosight and battle against AI with The Grid:

*Full disclosure, I received this experience for free, in return for this honest review*

The Grid: a new immersive drinking experience

The concept

We arrived at the Neosight HQ in the Bankside arches ready to assist with their testing and calibrations. This was also an opportunity to give any allergy restrictions and confirm if you wanted non alcoholic cocktails.

 

They kitted us out in these sexy jackets too!

 

Part one

We went up the stairs and entered the main laboratory to commence the testing. Each person had a screen and we watched an introductory video.

Meeting A.I.D.A.

Then we met A.I.D.A. the AI that we were assisting to learn. We started off on a bad footing as she asked for jokes. At first no one could think of any, but then knock knock didn’t go down too well…. (A.I.D.A. was not impressed!)

 

Drink number one was a cocktail containing the nanobots that A.I.D.A. needed to work.

We started by shaking up the flash to activate the nanobots.

Then we added this to the glass and added ice, ensuring that the temperature was under 10c before we could drink it.

When we had all drunk our cocktails, we went through calibration exercises on the screens. I don’t think we performed very well and A.I.D.A. did not like it!

The Grid!

Uh oh! A.I.D.A. was overloaded by The Grid and we learnt that the nanobots were actually bad for us!!!

We were then instructed by The Grid to find our way out of the room. Finding the relevant clues to open a locked cupboard we were confronted with an escape slide! Sliding down into the dark (well I couldn’t see the bottom), was exciting! Some of our group opted out due to claustrophobia reasons though.

 

Part two ‘down underground’

When we had all arrived ‘down under’ we had to figure out a whole new room. Following the instructions on the screen we managed to get power started – success!

We then had to calibrate a system and figure out some pass-codes.

But unfortunately A.D.I.A. was right behind us and broke into the system. The Grid was sacrificed to allow us to escape her evil clutches…

Escaping A.I.D.A.

We escaped via the elevator shaft and were released by Wayne… Wayne looked like he had been hiding from A.I.D.A. for a while!

Obviously Wayne had to verify our humanity and scan for nanobots….

Luckily Wayne had an antidote that we could take to kill the nanobots in our system and make avoiding A.I.D.A. easier.

There was much relief that we could escape A.I.D.A’s clutches!

 

After neutralising the nanobots we were free to sneak out of Neosight.

A lucky escape!

The verdict

This was a unique take on an immersive cocktail experience.

Part escape room, part cocktail class, part role play, you really get to know your companions!

I really felt that I was in the scenario, although at times we were a little lost on what to do! A few parts felt like they didn’t flow easily. I’m sure that we ran out of time and skipped bits…

The slide and escape via the elevator added elements of excitement into the experience. To get the most out of the experience you need to play along, with A.I.D.A., the Grid and the actors. I enjoyed the experience – something very different! This would be great as a date or for a group of friends. Even a Christmas team do perhaps?!

You can book your tickets for The Grid for £37, which includes the 90 minute experience and 2 cocktails. Book at The Grid