Sandbar Patio Bar & Grill

riding by on bikes and decided to stop in. Great location but place needs a total redo! Everything seemed dirty. food was uck! fries were good. waiter was attentive and nice but I wouldn’t go back. oh yea, music guy couldn’t sing. maybe should just play guitar.

Terrible service. Wait staff is incompetent or poorly trained. Takes 30 minutes to get a drink in a plastic cup. Food is average. Screwed up the check. Location and music are good. Without them they wouldn’t keep the doors open.

Stopped in this afternoon (9/6?15) while riding by on my bike. Thought i would go in and get a beer. Sidled up to the bar where the grim-​faced bartendress carefully avoided eye contact and was silently serving the patrons without any haste — despite the waiting line. After about 10 minutes of this I left. There were at least three others, that i could notice, who came in ahead of me, waiting for service. I only wait in line so long to give people my money, and there are too many other places in Boise that would promptly and cheerfully provide service to holiday weekend beer drinkers.
Full disclosure — my only experience with Sandbar. May try again later and give them a second chance.

Super nice atmosphere. Great entertainment. Beautiful setting. Terrific wait staff!
How can management let the bar run out of Dagger Falls?
Hence, the subpar rating
TQ
Sends

Big fan. Great «chips», great entrees, really great desert. Add that to killer location on the Boise River (just down the street from the surf wave!)

We arrived at 10:02 pm on a Friday and were told right away, «The kitchen is closed.»; and another employee added, «Yeah, we’re actually closed completely. But our bar inside (The Riverside Hotel) is open.» We promptly left and are very unlikely to return. Really– 10 pm on a Friday night in summer? Unimpressed.

Loved the riverside ambiance and updated menu. Great place to take kids, they loved the river and the ducks. I took my visiting mother and she loved her portobello sandwich. We are looking forward to summer so we can ride our bikes there and have some food and spirits.

Was biking along the Boise Greenbelt with my wife and kids when we got hungry and decided to stop at this place, which is adjacent to the Greenbelt. They have a lot of bike parking. They have a nice outdoor patio and happened to have live music when were were there (perhaps that just a summer weekend thing, we were there on a Saturday). The food is pretty standard American hamburgers, hotdogs; good, but not out of this world. Service was good. They had a couple local beers on tap that were very good (sorry, don’t remember exact brands, one was a hefeweizen and the other a brown ale I think).

Well apart from the beautiful location right on the river, this place was downright not memorable. Terrible service from the hostess to the waitresses and then the manager. Manager walked around checking out all the tables every 100 seconds but never checking in with the guests… it was a little creepy actually. (Which we would have loved to give her some thoughts about our experience hoping she actually cared.) Horrible service, okay food but could use less salt on the fries. Nothing special which is a shame because they could probably do well with the uniqueness of the place in Boise.

We tried this place twice but each time, with different servers, the service was awful. It I has great potential with the location but it is wasted on obviously poor management and training. Sad.

What a great atmosphere. More shade offered this year than last. With the pool on one side and the Boise river on the other it’s like going on vacation and never leaving town.
Prompt service and friendly staff. They worked quickly to clear tables and Sat us quickly.

I am new to town and was suggested to go and check this place out. Took me a minute to actually find it, seeing as there was no signs pointing me in the right direction. When I got there it looked simple but nice, definitely a ‘California’ vibe to it. The menu is simple and short as well though i did not try any food becasue i only came for drinks.
When i walked in there wasnt really a host so people would just walk in and take what they wanted. I fouind my self a spot and ordered a Jameson and ginger ale. 5 minutes go by and they say they our checking to see if they have any Jameson left. About 20 mintues later they finally bring my drink out but it wasnt what I ordered. They put in gigner beer instad of ginger ale. All the while I was waiting for my drink I saw at least three other tables come in, order, and receive their food and drink before i got my first round.
This place has great potential, with the live music and scenery, but it has a ways to go. I’d suggest to them actually having a host to properly seat people and give better training to their wait staff, becasue most of them seemed to have no hustle or looked lost.

We were visiting our son in Boise for two weeks. Met him and other friends from Boise at the Sandbar on a Friday night. There was an «oldies» band there, and most of the seating area close to the music were fans/​regulars, very few who were ordering food or even eating. We gave the host our name and number in the group (7), then found a waitress and gave her our drink order. We planned to drink while a table came available. The waitress must’ve forgotten our order, because thirty minutes passed and no drinks! Several tables emptied out, but no effort was made to seat any of the guests waiting. A person in our group went inside to the bar, found the waitress, and reminded her of our bar order. We finally got our drinks, but another twenty minutes passed, and we still were not seated. We let the waiter know how unhappy we were with the lack of service, and left on our bicycles. Went to the Ram, spent a lot more on dinner and drinks, but it was worth it!
Next week, tried the Sandbar once more on a weeknight. There was a Cuban jazz combo, and a much smaller crowd. Our same group of seven was seated at two adjacent round tables. This time, we got a waitress on her first night on the job. Sweet gal, but very overwhelmed with her duties. Took her several times to get our drink orders correct. Food was definitely good, but the alcohol dept. needs «Bar Rescue»!!

I’ve been wanting to try this place since I checked into The Riverside Hotel. I finally had a chance to sit back and enjoy a meal when we checked out.
We ordered the homemade sausage, which was mildly spicy, nicely cooked and tasty.
The portobello is vegan, was a winner in my book. Giant meaty fungus, potato bun, delicious!
The quinoa burger I had high hopes for but was quite disappointed. Also a vegetarian burger and the flavours were good but the patty broke apart too easily.
The service was prompt and very friendly. My next trip I will have to come back and try more items on the menu.

The Philly cheesesteak sandwich and fries was very good. Great and friendly service.

I had very high hopes for this place. Very cool location with outside seating on the patio overlooking the greenbelt. The ambiance is very cool, but the food is quite horrible. I had the «veggie wrap» which consisted of cold pre grilled soggy vegetables in a tortilla for 4.99. Had to be the worst veggie wrap I’ve ever had. The fries were decent, fresh cut, and double dipped. I would have a beer or three here but not sure I would touch the food again.

We went here while staying at the riverside hotel. The location is nice, awesome music, and local ingredients. We got 2 burgers and some fries for under 20.00 and it tasted great. My one complaint is they claim to me a «green» resturaunt, but the cups are disposable (make of biodegradable plastic, but still) the silverware was disposable wood, and paper napkins.
Service was great! We really liked our waitress.

Did not like the atmosphere and the help. Felt like I was being sort of shoved aside. Struck me as the further Californication of Boise. I will NOT go back!

Awesome setting next to the river just off the green belt. Nice big basket of sweet potato fries and a cold drink. Nice place to chill, I’ll definitely be back.