A metamaterial based new microstrip patch antenna design is presented for multiband applications. Metamaterials provide unique features of obtaining high directional gain and miniaturization. Herein, square, hexagonal and star shaped patches have been designed over a Complementary Strip Ring Resonator loaded reactive impedance surface (CSR-RIS). The CSR-RIS unit cell is studied with reflection phase diagram using computer simulation technology (CST). Further, three patches with optimized dimensions are investigated. The comparison has been done among all three CSR-RIS patch antennas. CSR-RIS or metamaterial based star patch antenna array with 5 elements provided high gain of 10.6dBi respectively. Proposed antennas can be used for designing low weight receivers for airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. © 2015 IEEE.