Mobile phone footage taken by a visitor to Marwell Zoo in Winchester showed the moment one of the Sulawesi macaques ran into a food shop.
Visitors took to social media to say they were locked inside shops while keepers tried to locate the pair at about 12:40 BST.
The monkeys were returned to their home within 30 minutes and no one was hurt.
Kevin O'Donnell posted on Twitter calling it a "great escape" and recorded one of the monkeys running around the zoo.
One visitor posted: "Monkeys have escaped at Marwell Zoo currently hiding out with the giraffes".
Another said Marwell staff acted "quickly and professionally".
A spokesperson for the zoo said guests and staff were asked to remain indoors while keepers dealt with the situation, which took about 30 minutes.
"We are grateful for the way in which our guests cooperated and thank them for their understanding," the spokesperson said.
"Our thanks to our animal management team who responded swiftly and carried out a model response.
"The two macaques have rejoined the rest of the family and all five will remain in the indoor part of their enclosure until a full investigation has been carried out.
"Our vet team has carried out checks and we are happy to report that the animals came to no harm. The zoo remains open as usual."

Viktoria Tautz, 34, was looking after Joshua Paul at his home in Haringey, north London, on 29 August 2014 when he suddenly collapsed.
Joshua was taken to hospital but died on 1 September, the Old Bailey heard.
Ms Tautz, of Holly Park Road, Barnet, denies one charge of manslaughter and insists she never got angry with him.
The court heard Joshua, who was born about 10 weeks early, had a large head for his age and was being monitored.
Asked what she knew about his condition, Ms Tautz said she was aware his head was "big" and "sensitive" on the top.
After starting work for his family in June, she said she was getting on well with the parents.
On Joshua, she said: "He was good baby."
Bernard Richmond QC, defending, asked how she coped on days when she found him in an unhappy mood.
Ms Tautz said: "There was not much needed. I lifted him a bit. I played with him. He calmed easily."
The barrister asked if she ever got "angry" or "frustrated" with the baby.
She replied: "No, never."
On the day of Joshua's death, Ms Tautz said he was lying on his back making "baby noises" so she talked to him in English, thinking he was not tired enough to sleep.
When he began "crying very intensively" she decided to pick him up to "make him calm down", she said.
"When I picked him up his face was red. I recognised his face seemed swollen," she told the court.
Joshua did not appear to be breathing and she "got scared" - taking him to the bathroom to try and induce vomiting, the jury heard.
"Everything happened very fast", she said.
"I was absolutely scared. I didn't know what happened to him."
Ms Tautz was arrested on 5 September and in police interviews said she had not had any accidents and denied shaking him.
Jurors were told Joshua died "because of a head injury that caused bleeding in his brain, eyes and other spinal injuries".
The trial continues.
A zoo was put on lockdown after two adult monkeys escaped from their enclosure in Hampshire.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A nanny accused of leaving a 10-month-old boy fatally injured in a fit of anger has denied to a court that she lost her temper with him.