Sand Box Beachfront Bar & Eatery — Restaurant in Mai Khao

We stayed at Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa during our international trip post pandemic and absolutely loved the vibrant dining scene.

Sand Box- Beachfront Bar & Eatery was about a casual and fun vibe. We had 2 of our dinners at the newly revamped Sand Box - Beachfront Bar & Eatery. Known to be one of the most exclusive beachfront dining spots on the island, the 60 seater open restaurant with a sand base and wooden ceiling serves exciting recipes by Chef Jakub Mares. It’s got a modern tropical design and a cool open concept kitchen. One can't miss the big beautiful bar which makes its stunning impression when one enters. Lamps not just illuminate the bar well but also make the place look phenomenal. Right opposite the bar was the open kitchen where yummy dishes were being prepared.

The menu at Sand Box is carefully crafted by ‘Chef Jakub Mares’ Executive Chef of the Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa who has extensive experience and a huge repertoire of various cooking techniques. Some recommend dishes include Sesame Tuna Summer Rolls, Grilled Siray Bay Octopus, Sticky Barbecue Pork Ribs, Truffle & Gold Pizza, Pappardelle, and Grilled Phuket Pineapple.

The friendly staff greets its customers with a bright smile offering an international menu. The best part was that it also had Indian cuisine. We ordered a mix of Indian and Italian dishes. From Indian menu, we ordered Dal Makhani, Murg Makhanwala, Lamb Rogan Josh as well as Paneer Butter Masala. All of them came with paratha, poppadum and basmati rice. We got to know that the chef was from India and we are glad he did a fabulous job in retaining the flavours of the dishes which we loved. Paratha was also thin, flaky and great. We are sure many tourists as well localities would be coming again and again for these delicacies.

We had heard of the brand-new Italian imported wood fired pizza oven - delivering the best freshly baked pizzas daily so we had to have Pizza. We requested if we could get capsicum, olives, onion toppings and to my surprise, the server said it could be done. The flat base pizza made infront of our eyes was such a yummilicious delight.

Finger lickin chicken wings were sweet. I am honestly used to the spicier version.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio was made in a classy manner. Fish and Chips were crisp outside and soft inside. Served with fries, they made for a great delight. We also tried the Chicken Burger which was made on special request and it was yummy.

Time for desserts and we had Monster cookie for two. The Peanut Caramel ice cream paired with butterscotch sauce and nuts was remarkable. Seasonal fruit platter came with Thai fruits… absolutely loved the taste and flavours.

Our dinner is incomplete without amazing mocktails. Me and my family tried Virgin mojito, Ice tea as well as Mango juice. All were amazing. You can also tip your toes in the sand or laze away the day with a laid-back tropical vibe with refreshing Sand Box’s signature craft drinks such as Watermelon Caiprinha, Venetial Spritz, and Gin-Spired Flight.

You can also join Evenings at Renaissance - the brand's signature bar ritual activity every Wednesday to Saturday from 6:00 - 7:00PM where they can enjoy complimentary local punch bowl crafting session led by the resort’s house mixologist ‘Benz’ and mingle with others like-minded...

Where shall I start? Recently stayed here for 2 weeks. This restaurant belongs to the Renaissance resort. Here the staff, the servers have no idea what they are doing, a very chaotic place. One night we were sitting there with our drinks for one hour(!!!) before we got our food and even then we had to alert the staff that we were still waiting. They are running around, quite a few of them, aimlessly, not noticing empty plates, glasses on tables and not noticing customers wanting something. Another time my latte was sitting on the till for 5 minutes before they served me, even then my partner had to alert them that my latte was ready. Of course, by then it was cold so I sent it back. Such a shame as the prices are sky high. They want to be 5* but the quality is not there at all. Food is average, not bad, but for the price not good enough. Whoever trained the staff, was not doing a good job. They don't even know how to carry two or more plates. Also, they don't seem to know that from the moment the guest get their drinks, they have a maximum of 15 to 20 minutes to give them their starter. Once you finish your starter, they should clean the table in maximum of 5 minutes and bring the next course in 10 minutes. Never have we got our meal like that. I wouldn't care but it is an expensive 5* place and we paid a lot of money for our hotel package. Here you can pay the equivalent of £8 for an espresso coffe and a latte, because you pay an extra 10% service charge+8% tax. Service charge for what??? For that service??? Management should wake up, the place is simply not good enough for those prices. There are millions of russian guests in the hotel, they might not complain because they are full of money, do not speak english and probably do not know what the service should be like. But coming from London, having worked in hospitality we know that the place is seriously lacking. One more thing! Do not order pizza there! Omg, it is something that an italian pizza maker would cut their wrist...

I would give five stars on the service. All staffs are friendly and trying to help. It was 3 of us on the rainy day, the restaurant was crowded. The food took a little too long but we were okay with that since they were understaffed and pretty busy plus heavy rain. We ordered couple dishes and all of them was very disappointed. Calamari came out with tartar sauce. Tartar was blended, the battered fall apart as soon as we picked it up 2/10. The second was Pizza with smoked salmon, the ingredients itself was good, sadly the flavors weren’t there 6/10. The third was Carbonara, super oily, still tasteless 5/10. Last but not least was Grilled pork salad. It was skewered grilled minced pork that full of fatty part and very sweet. It served with Thai style spicy salad 4/10. We also had 6 cocktails, none of it were impressive. We even ordered desserts since we had no fear and wanted to try everything (worst decision ever). We had Crepe cake that the server informed us it comes with anglaise but end up with berry sauce. Anyway we got the Crepe cake as a complimentary because they said the cake was burnt on the top but we still insisted to have it. The cake looked fine, didn’t look burnt to us, and again the flavors were not there 5/10. We had the chocolate mousse that more like chocolate cake with soft fudge. It was so wrong. All the ingredients were absolutely great but it’s such a shame that the taste is horrible. It was our last meal before leaving Phuket and extremely dissatisfied. I think with the price and as a Marriott chains they should do way better. Step up guys, get...