Sonic Drive-In

We ordered to go so didn’t notice until we got home… in our entire order of onion rings there were literally TWO onion rings in the container. TWO! For $ 1.19! So these TWO onion rings were 60 cents apiece!!! And they weren’t even big! That’s not even enough for a snack! Am I being punk’d here or what??? It’s a good thing the breakfast burrito and burger were tasty.

Just like everyone, we’ve been tantalized by Sonic commercials on TV and finally decided to give it a try. We had to drive a bit to get to one and it was confusing when we arrived; we thought you could go inside to order food if you didn’t opt for the carhop vibe. Instead, you order via a speaker thingy regardless, so we got back in the car and pulled into a carhop place. We ordered a double cheeseburger with fries and a root beer vanilla cream soda plus a coney cheese dog with tater tots and a Dr Pepper vanilla cream soda. When the food arrived, delivered by a very nice young man on roller skates, we discovered the fries and tater tots were not very hot. The top of the burger was cold. The coney dog was not a coney dog (if you are from Michigan you know there is a difference between a coney dog and a chili dog) but it tasted fine. We suspect the food may not actually be cooked there, but rather reheated. The «alleged» vanilla cream” sodas did not taste like anything more than root beer and Dr Pepper with cherry flavoring added. Our journey to Sonic was disappointing and I doubt we’ll be back.

Was pleasantly surprised with their Chicago Dog! My husband too! The peppers were spicy, the pickle was huge & the bread was fresh! French Fries are crunch & thick cut! (Yum) and the onion rings were sweet & extra crunchy!
Husband got a vanilla cone, the ice cream is great! Real ice cream but sadly the cone was t good?

Fast food that’s both cheap and decent. Love the burgers and tots. Lots of slushies to choose from. Definitely a fan!

Stopped in for a quick burger and fries. I really don’t expect much from fast food but it should at least be hot. The beef? On the burger was to cold to even begin to melt the cheese. The only thing I ate was the fries. I won’t be returning.

Went there to satisfy my pregnant wife’s ice cream cravings. We usually like Sonics, there aren’t too many of them anywhere near us in WI, so they’re kind of a novelty. We’ve had better experiences at them than at this one, and better experiences AT this one.
The evening we went, it was a Tuesday night at about 7pm… we were the only car at the «drive-​in» section, while there were 3 cars in line for the «drive-​through.» Point is, it wasn’t busy. Still, it took FOREVER to get a couple of sundaes. And by forever, I mean literally 15 minutes. Good thing we weren’t in a hurry. How long does it take though to slop a little ice cream and stuff in a plastic thingy? On top of it, despite my requesting nuts for the sundaes, the girl confirming it, me repeating it (again, wife cravings), they still managed to screw it up and bring things out with no nuts.
The harried server (why? there was no one there!!!) who brought the order out was apologetic for the wait time, and seemed really frazzled (first day on the job? I don’t know, so I’ll try to not be too judgmental) so at that point I didn’t complain about the lack of nuts. I try to keep my expectations low for any fast food places so as to not be disappointed, and this is why.

Gosh, the hot dogs… yum, we drove here satisfy the cravings and this place delivered. We had the Chicago hot dog, well actually two each as they were amazing. We had some shakes with it to comply with the tradition and we were two happy campers =)

Happy hour 2 – 4 half price drinks and slushes. Open late you can pay at the drive up which makes it easy. There are trays that can be out in your window so no need to have things in your car

Sonic! I wish we had these at home, but I can see how the ‘pull your car up, order and we’ll bring your food to the window’ model might not work to we’ll in a Canadian winter.
Anyways everything is cheap and fast, but don’t expect anything great in terms of the food. It’s pretty standard fast food. Deep fried everything, burgers, dogs, etc. The chili cheese coneys are a favourite, but they’re something I could make at home in like 10 minutes if I was so inclined (the ingredients aren’t that special/​unique).
I hear really good things about the drinks here from my family (limeades in particular), but that’s just not something I’m all that into so I haven’t really tried many outside stealing a sip or two.

First time at a Sonic and had trouble deciding what I wanted. Took me a while to even wrap my head around ordering something cause everything looked good and it was cheap compared to Canadian fast food places.
I ended up order a Chili Cheese Coney and a large lime-​ade. The coney was alright, not my style of food but it was decent and uh lime-​ade was huge. Thought it would have not line flavor to it since there were actual like wedges in there.
The service was fast and super friendly. It’s pretty amazing that you don’t have to leave your car at all.
Can’t wait to try the other things on the menu!

Been to this location twice in the past two months. Both times the food and service was great.

I live in Miami. No Sonic here. The shakes are amazing and the customer service was great.

Only one in the south side of town. Really need on at Gulf Coast Towncenter mall!!!
Great burrito and Chicago hots. Frys well can’t ruin tater tots I guess

The two rating is based solely on the review I’m about to write.
Sonic offers half priced shakes after 8pm. I had gone with other other person, on our way home from a cousin’s house last week. We decided since it was 8:30, why not try it? Yeah, we were wrong.
We pulled into the drive thru, and the writing on the order board is so tiny, we asked what kind of shakes they have. The teenager told us, so quick, we’re like «huh?» He also said they have malts. We asked what the difference was, and he said he didn’t know, as he’d not had either one (?! How do you work there and not know the difference? Is one thicker over the other? Different textural experience???). So I ordered a vanilla shake, the other person ordered chocolate shake. $ 2.49 later, we decided it wasn’t really worth going. The vanilla had an after taste. Although it was thick and looked creamy, with a dollop of whipped cream and a cherry, something tasted off with it. The chocolate looked as bland as the vanilla. Came the same way — whipped cream, cherry, thick. It had very little chocolate taste to it. As if they just took a tiny morsel of a chocolate shaving and stuck it in the shake.
I went back last night to try again, as I had stopped in the supermarket next door. I got the chocolate shake this time. I waited in a long line, as someone decided to go thru and make a huge order — big enough for 5 people, it seemed, because they were sent to one of the pull up eat there corrals. My shake finally got to me, and it had been liquifyed. It looked like the cherry and whip cream were floating on soup. I got it home and it tasted like they dumped a whole bottle of chocolate syrup in the cup, mixed some shake chemicals rather loosely and called it a chocolate shake. The whipped cream looked like it came out of a Reddi Made air can, but tasted like Cool Whip.
The shakes are definitely NOT worth the price; regardless of whether you pay full or half.
_​_​_​_​
Side notes of suggestions (aka, something that might make it 2.5 or 3 stars):
I suggest not going at night if you can’t see lit signs well. Either the writing is too small, there was too much background light, or it was my eyesight, but the drive thru sign was promoting food items — hot dogs, tater tots, in big writing, but everything else — beverage choice, other food offerings, was written so tiny, I had to pretend like I didn’t know what I wanted to order because I couldn’t read the sign.
The redeeming quality is the slush thingies. Half priced between 2 – 4 = I only return for that, if I happen to pass by. Depending on the flavour, you get a cherry in the cup. They once in a while give you a wrapped starlight mint as well. :)

We had to see if Sonic was taking on Costco when we saw Sonic’s recent big promo for a hot dog, priced under two bucks.
Yes, they were. But sorry, Sonic. A panel of biased judges including me who somehow got into my car together one afternoon, decided that Costco’s got a better dog deal. Here’s how we broke it down:
At Sonics, you drive into a covered parking spot, stay in your car, and holler into a scratchy order box at employees who hide out in a funny house where the public is prohibited. Sonic makes tater tots in there, so it is indeed a hidden and scarey place.
Don’t take one of the first parking spots on the right at Sonics. Those spaces belong to unknown loyal customers (ULC) who hold Sonic cards. The order boxes next to these parking spots are either coded, or have their digitized screens set to severely unreadable. I assume that only card carrying, ULC carry on their burger & fry business there, and with all the seriousness of anonymous Swiss bankers and numbered accounts.
At Costco, you get to leave your car in the parking lot where it won’t be at risk of having mustard and indelible grease added to either your upholstery or to your silly friends who are riding along for this made-​up contest. At Costco, you also give your order to an employee in person who simply turns around in a sensible shoe 360 to pickup your dog and pass it to you in return for a buck plus change. Then you go with your food to sit at a table where the mess can spread away from you and on to Costco’s customer-​proofed, red plastic tables.
Sonic on the other hand has four kinds of hot dogs, all photoshopped nicely for the monitor’s display next to the squak box. No drink in the deal.
Costco shows you both of only two dog choices you can buy, but takes less money from you than Sonics, PLUS hands you a Costco-​sized soda suitable for hydrating a family of four.
Sonic holds out on its drink during its two buck offer, knowing that the salt content in most of its food will send you to the nearest retention pond for a long cow drink if you don’t also buy Sonic’s money-​added soda in combo with those famous tater tots that are wrapped and ready inside the Sonic safe house.
Sonic’s hot dog boom’s a bust.
.

For cheap food, it is good.
For drinks, it is wonderful.
For great staff I have to say I pretty much love them all. Almost all know me by name but I am there for drinks twice a day. They all know my little guy by name too. We love the personal service.
Tend to be a little slow at times. Not my favorite part. Any friend that visits me knows that they are not going anywhere with me until I get my Rt. 44 tea ½ and ½ but every friend near and far has complained about the wait time, no matter what time we go.
I love the staff, I love my drinks and I will remain loyal as long as the drinks are good and the staff stays friendly.

Cranberry-limeade…yum!

First off let me say I love Sonic. This Sonic however needs some help. YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOUR FRY OIL!!! This is not a oh it happened once thing but an every time thing. Maybe they cook everything in the same oil but everything fried there tastes burnt like old oil. It is gross! Go ahead make fun of Burger King and Wendy’s but at least the food is fresh and tastes normal and not burnt.

I live in Miami, and it kills me that they always run these Sonic commercials, knowing damn well I cant drive anywhere to get those juicy looking burgers. Well its all a big LIE! It sucks, McDonald’s is much better, and I dont even eat fast food. So this weekend while in Naples, we all were overly excited at our discovery of a Sonic’s Burger, and we all agreed the hype build up on tv, is just that. So the moral of the story is, Dont believe the Hype, kids. TV KILLS!

Although I recognize this review might be inflated because of the principle of scarcity, I am still going to give it 4 stars.
There is no Sonic in Maryland or DC. Every so often, Comcast will screw with my mind and broadcast a Sonic commercial — which are horribly dumb, by the way — and revive my hope that maybe, just maybe, Sonic opened a new location within a reasonable distance of my home. But it is never so. In fact, it appears as though the chain is avoiding Maryland on purpose, considering that there are locations almost immediately across the border in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia.
Damn you, Sonic. Damn you.
So before I even left for Florida, I made sure to look up the nearest Sonic locations. This particular one is right on the route from the airport to Captiva. For that perfectly convenient location, it wins.
It also wins because of the cherry limeades that use real limes (but fake cherry flavor) and taste oh so refreshing with crushed ice. In fact, my whole obsession with Sonic can be traced to the cherry limeades. For less than $ 2, you can get a super big gulp sized cup filled with this stuff.
They also take you back to your elementary school lunchroom days, offering tater tots and corn dogs and hot dogs. Tater tots!!! Corn dogs!!! Heart attacks!!! Obesity!!! The onion rings are yummy too, and they’re not like the fake-​ion rings you get at Burger King. They actually have onion inside. (Sonic also does sundaes, shakes, burgers, slushes, breakfast sandwiches, fries and your usual fast food fare. The burgers and sandwiches tend toward the greasy and unappealing side, but that’s ok with me because of the cherry limeades.)
So after you pull into a spot, push the little red button and give the lady your order, you can pay on the credit card swiper gas station style and have your food brought out on a red tray right in the convenience of your car. It’s so old school Americana, I love it.
The only negative part of the experience was when we got attacked by bees after we received our food. I’d rather inhale toxic pesticides than be surrounded by insects. But I guess they like the cherry limeades too.