The Sandbank Bar & Restaurant in Colchester

We love this restaurant especially Paul the head chief who accommodated my dietary requirements and even remembered my dietary needs a year on! I was very impressed. Despite a limited menu, when you talk to the staff they are very supportive to dietary needs. Paul was absolutely lovely and checked if everything was ok during the meal, plus all of our 13 meals came out very quickly.

We visited this place multiple times and were really impressed with the place and staff, Georgina was extremely welcoming and very friendly she also made the effort to talk with us each time we entered the place. The food was really nice for both lunch and dinner, the triple chocolate ice cream is insane and the pub its self is immaculate as are the toilets.

We spent two lunchtimes here and we were very impressed with the service and food; Georgina the Manager created bespoke cocktails for wife and my self as we were celebrating my wife's birthday; thoroughly recommend the whole experience.

Staff really friendly and helpful, food was nice, would like to see a salad on the menu and catering for food intolerances. Choice is a little limited this year. That said, the food was lovely, and arrived promptly. Staff were so kind and considerate at the bar and serving at the table. Lovely place to go for food.

Decided to have breakfast at Sandbanks this morning and it was really delicious and reasonably priced. Well cooked Full English with crispy bacon and all served hot. Friendly and prompt service. We will be back.

Place looks nice and staff OK but food too expensive for what it is. Small bowl of chicken pesto pasta, £16!!! Not good enough... and an hours wait for said food 🙄

Place looked stunning from the outside, we were served by a couple of good lads, had a good range of different drinks on the menu. Only intended to stay for one but it was lovely. However, we went to order another drink but were told we weren’t being served anymore because one of our party had been sick in the toilet. Now we did go to the bathroom but avoided the toilet that had sick around the bowl but at no point were any of us sick. There was no convincing the miserable necked tattooed girl who was pretending to be the manager who was adamant that one of her staff had told her we had been to the bathroom which was true we had been to the bathroom but not to be sick. A group of 3 professional women who were too old to be sick and carry on drinking! Overall a brilliant start but a disappointing end to what was a lovely day. Avoid at all costs they need to review their management.

We could have stayed here all afternoon. One of the most relaxing pub lunches I have had. Lovely comfortable chairs outside and friendly staff., the great weather helped as well. The food was fine and on a par with many similar places and far better than other reviews suggest. Will certainly come back.

Very friendly staff a bit rushed off there feet short staffed I had the best pizza 🍕 I've ever tasted will be back soon 👍🍺

Very poor food was very poor wouldn’t recommend anyone to go here save your money Dirty as well Avoid like the plague please

Looks really nice but the food lets it down. Took 50 minutes to arrive and when it did the kids fish was greasy and the pizza was made with cheddar 🤮 Even starving children couldn’t eat it.

We went here as was in the area for the day and wanted a family friendly place for dinner and as this has a little playground and was on the beach and looked modern we decided to give it a try. I’m not normally a complainer but they should be embarrassed serving up this food! It was so bad, £13 for chicken that was meant to be Peri Peri but came up with zero seasoning/ sauce - not even salt and pepper but had a small jug of peri sauce on the side. Now I appreciate the menu stated it came with peri sauce on side but with an item titled Peri peri chicken I was shocked to be presented with a bit of chicken that was white as a ghost. It’s like saying BBQ chicken but being given plain chicken and a bottle of BBQ sauce!!! The rest of the food was also bland and over priced for what they presented. Okay place for a drink by the sea but don’t eat here. Gutted we spent money on this as was a rare occasion eating out for us and was very disappointing.

Absolutely fantastic service and food! No idea what the other reviews are talking about. We had such a great service and experience. Almost didn't go from the reviews but so pleased we did! Food was very nice. 4 adults and 4 children.

Absolutely dreadful, over an hour wait for food, no warning of delay to serving food when I ordered. No apology from staff, when I chased up the food order. The venue wasn't even busy and the food isn't freshly prepared on site. When the food came the order was incorrect and it was an issue to correct it, as the staff disbelieved my order and it was en effort to request extra tartar sauce, it took two requests and a challenge as the sauce is 'portioned'! Furthermore the Duty Manager conveniently couldn't put an advertised drinks promotion through the till, so we had to pay the standard price! Avoid at all cost! Avoid at all cost!

The worst 'entertainment' venue on god's holy earth. I say entertainment loosely because there literally is none. ATM doesn't work, arcade doesn't work, no entertainment, very few staff, no atmosphere, and ridiculously priced alcohol. I've never known anything so unfit for purpose. You have been warned!

Honestly do not bother, massive waste of time and money!!!! This place is a joke! Every time I've been in there are no staff, and all of the usual amenities are unavailable. As a club house in a holiday park, there are expectations, especially during August! Cash machine not working, arcade machines only take a special card, machine that creates those cards isn't working. Can't play pool without cash, but can't get cash out. Drinks are hugely over priced! Paid nearly £20 for two drinks! No entertainment throughout the week, early closing times as well. If you are a holiday maker hoping to have everything you and the family need on site...think again. The Waldegraves is 10 minutes walk and much better... entertainment every night...shop, bar that is reasonably priced...working games room etc... The Sandbanks is pathetic...empty every night...now I understand why!

I’m a beach hut owner very near to Sandbanks. Despite eating there once, I will use it as a quick watering hole at best now purely through lack of alternatives, and even then I’ll wince and frown at the set up, service and product. Long queues when empty and soulless, plastic cups at the weekend for a £6 pint and food that could kill a buzzard. It amazes me how the prime position and clientele to die for could be just so disregarded as a business model. The decor is fine, the bar is designed well enough, with a great choice. That’s it. Literally that’s it. The management couldn’t organise a p*** up in a seaside pub. The music sporadic, just like the staff. If you do go here, please mark these words and I’m sure you’ll snigger to yourself at how spot on I am.

Visited with friends who have a caravan on the sit and I have to say it was a pretty uninspiring visit. We had lunch and the food wasn't great, and also the service was a bit underwhelming. Many caravan owners on the site are dog owners as I'm sure a lot of other visitors to the pub are too, so what amazes me is that no dogs are allowed inside yet children are welcomed. The no dog policy must put people off on a cold or windy day who just want a pint and something to eat as they're confined to the outside area, and this in turn may see Sandbanks losing money. Of course children should be allowed - I'm not anti-children - and if they're well behaved then that's fantastic. Unfortunately, some children are not and are allowed to run around and annoy other customers seemingly unchecked by their parents. I generally find that a well behaved dog is hardly noticed whereas unruly children.......... Fortunately, there are other pubs on the island who have a much more liberal, up to date and welcoming attitude towards dog owners, so guess where we'll be going in the future. Get a grip Sandbanks and stop alienating customers who want to spend money at your premises.

Please advoid this place, food is awful, worse fish and chips, save yourself money and time go to your local chippy instead, such a shame because this restaurant inside and outside is quite nice.

We’ve just had the best evening at Sandbanks. Not sure why all the bad reviews, drinks were normal prices and the staff were all lovely. Watched a Michael Jackson tribute who was excellent. All the staff were up and dancing and all lovely and friendly. We will be back.

Awful customer service. Rude staff and extortionate drink prices. Such a shame because the site is lovely. Just employ polite staff!

Our family have just returned from a short break at West Mersea Holiday Park. Whilst we were there we used the Sandbank Restaurant which is right on the beach opposite the beautiful pastel beach huts. The restaurant is modern and very clean, there is a...

Dreadful place. After 40 minutes waiting for our food they told us they didn’t have one of our orders and refused to offer any compensation and effectively charged us £10 more for the privilege! I have 2 children under 10 who were desperately hungry by...

Great atmosphere, friendly staff fantastic location great choice of food and drink all staff fantastic special mention to Deni who is always so friendly and helpful

Such a great venue. It has a good play area, lovely decor, it’s just off the beach and within walking distance of our house (so has the potential to be a local for us) however the food is just terrible. The pizza looked like it...

Ordered food for just me and the mrs restaurant had a handful of people in waited nearly 40 minutes then had to go up to bar to find out when it was coming out no apology was my first time in there was unimpressed should...

Regulars and caravan owners have been waiting for the referb of this place for a long time. It looks great now but they are massively missing a trick when it comes to the food. Its the same tired menu from the day it opened. They...

We booked for a Mother’s Day meal with out son and our friends and their son, we were very very impressed. Service was excellent, staff were really friendly, the food was delicious. They also Surprised us with a bottle of champagne 🍾 to celebrate Mother’s...

Whilst the decor is immaculate and very clean with a lovely park outside for kiddies, The food was subpar at best my steak was far to chewy with stone cold chips and rock hard peas but the dessert was lovely my pancakes were amazing and...

Hi, (I did attempt to send this via FB, but there was no response!) We had a family soiree in your Restaurant on Wed 29th Dec. The venue is fantastic, spacious and comfortable; the staff who were working that day were great. However, the food...

This place is a 70s time warp with nice decor, but really bad food out of the freezer and into the deep fat fryer, like I remember back then. Fish and chips tasted like cardboard and it didn‘t come with cutlery, which you had to...