Sandbox at Derby — Restaurant in Gypsum Township

Tried out the sandbox with some friends the other day... we reserved a pickleball court and ate inside for dinner.

First, the outdoor activities.. if you book before 4pm, I think its worth it! Price isn't too bad for an hour of play (~$20 total for the group), and the activities were fun. The other people playing there were friendly and partook in activities with us. The music playing was a bit loud since we ended up with the court right next to the speakers.... I feel like those speakers should be somewhere else because I couldn't hear my friends talk at all when songs are playing. Unfortunately, if you book a court for more than a single hour, OR book past 5pm, the price immediately triples which is a HUGE turnoff. We were there past 5 eating, and the place was busy, but the courts were empty - probably because of the price. It was pretty windy outside as well...which for the activities that require throwing/hitting things into the air, I feel like the tent should be up for days like that. I give the outside stuff 4 stars if you can get in cheap...

The food and service were the not-so-great part of our visit. I ordered fish and chips with the mozzarella sticks as appetizers. The mozzarella sticks were 10 dollars for 4 of them which was appalling to me. My meal was $26 dollars with a soda, which didn't even include the tip for the waitress. This is some outrageous level of fine dining prices for bar food, and the appetizers are a complete ripoff. This goes for other appetizers as well, I ordered the quesadilla once (which was good) but it was small and similarly priced to the mozz sticks. The fish and chips... there was a lot of food, and the fish was fried well and good. However, the fries weren't good at all...under-seasoned and stale right as they came out. I didn't end up eating them. The waitress was nice and came by often asking for refills, but didn't give my friend back correct change, he was stolen out $1.70 or something like that. So for around $31 for my meal, including the tip, I feel completely ripped off. There needs to be either a serious increase of the quality of food or a significant decrease of the price for things. The food experience was two stars, maybe even less.

I'm not sure if I could recommend anyone eat here unless theyre really looking to waste a lot of money. Maybe the alcoholic beverages are appealing, but I didnt end up trying anything because I had already spent so much...

I’m not usually one to leave a bad review, but I feel compelled. We went Friday night. I live out of state and checked online and noticed they close at 11pm so we stopped after the high school football game. We arrived around 9:50pm and upon walking in, 3 employees standing in a group looked at us several times but never came to seat us, so we started walking to seat ourselves. At which point we were brought menus. Our waitress took 10 minutes to get to our table (in an almost empty restaurant) and informed us that the kitchen closed at 10pm. Looking at my watch and seeing that it was 10pm on the dot, we thanked her and got up to leave. She stopped us and said they would keep the kitchen open for us if we ordered now. We placed orders for 5 meals, and I kid you not, every single one of them was not edible. The 2 burgers were way too salty and insanely dry, our traditional wings we ordered came out as boneless instead and were rubbery, we couldn’t even bite into them. Literally impossible tot take a bite of them, I question if it was really chicken. The street tacos were the size of dollar pancakes, comically tiny, we literally laughed when they were brought out and the sauce on it was so sour it tasted as though it was spoiled. The chicken nuggets on the kids menu are the same rubbery “chicken” as the boneless wings we didn’t order and my 8 year old literally could not take a bite of them due to the texture which was not like chicken. This is the first time I’ve paid for a meal that literally no one ate more than one single bite of each plate. I paid for it because the waitress was nice enough to “keep the kitchen open for us” but I’ve never in my life paid for a meal and left all the food sitting on the table. The Manager noticed and she came by to see what the problem was, and I explained that none of the food was edible and we would not be returning. She was sweet and apologetic, but the food was absolutely terrible.

It’s a cool place. An entirely redone menu would be a good start to trying to save it. No way it survives as a thriving restaurant...

I went last night for the first time because it was my 30th birthday and I will never be back. This is a restaurant? So the food is the important part? Ha. I ordered the bbq bacon cheeseburger with fries and my son got the kids quesadilla with fries. First lets talk about the fries.. Those were truly the worst fries I have EVER had. The were beyond crunchy. The were so fried there was no potato. I even broke a couple open and showed my waitress. She said "yeeeah people don't usually eat the fries". SHE KNEW! She knew how bad they are and they still serve them! I don't even know the correct words to use to describe them because they were so bad. Next the burger; I was expecting Freddy's smashburger style but they were just small thin patties that didn't resemble smash-style at all. But whatever, that's just my personal expectation. However, I ordered the bbq bacon cheeseburger but I didn't get any sauce so that was annoying but thankfully the waitress was apologetic when I asked for some. I was already gone from the restaurant when I realized I never got the fried onion strings which was literally the reason I ordered the bbq bacon burger. I was so distracted by the horrible fries, my son running around and just trying to enjoy my birthday dinner that I didn't think about it until I had already left. I am disappointed with The Sandbox, especially for my first time. The women's restroom had no paper towels or hand soap the first time I went in before ordering and still didn't before we left. I had to go tell someone because my son was going into the men's restroom to grab some for ladies. I don't typically write negative reviews but with this being a new establishment I'm hoping this review will help. I will never be back and regret spending my 30th birthday dinner...