Sonic Drive-In

[RedQueen]

Footlong chili cheese dog with onions and a Route 44 size cherry limeade. Cut it into 4 pieces with the dull plastic fork and lean forward so you don't get it on your shirt. After you are finished the free peppermint kills most of the aftertaste!

[Icanmakeit]

My daughter worked at Sonic in high school - she was a car hop. She described an operation that was very clean, strident on keeping everything fresh and making food on request and not pre-cooking things and keeping them heated. While I'm not crazy about most fast food. They had some pretty good items at the time - the burgers and tots were OK. I have seen them try to be more like Jack in the Box and serve a mish-mash of everything and not doing any of them very well. The drinks are really good and you can buy a bag of that pebble ice for less than a dollar.

[jgm]

It turns out there's a Sonic right near our friends in New Jersey and we're visiting them tomorrow. Any tips on what to order on what may be my one Sonic experience for the next decade?

Steven, that was a Sonic next to the motel some of us stayed in last summer when we were in Kansas City for the Heartland Gathering; you and Kris and I sat outside and enjoyed limeades. [edit: You pointed that out in a later post. That's what I get for posting before reading everything. Sorry!]

That's pretty much the best of Sonic, as far as I'm concerned. (I always order a diet cherry limeade, easy on the cherry - otherwise, it's too sweet.) Their tots are usually pretty good. If one must consume an entree, let it be the foot-long coney. They used to have a pretty good Frito chili pie, but now they've turned it into a wrap and it's dreadful.

Chris, I sometimes do go there on my lunch hour, and sit in my car and eat if it's not too hot. Sometimes it's the only quiet time I get during my day. But I have to be in the mood for a coney and tots, because nothing else on the menu is worth ordering.

Edited July 6, 2010 by jgm (log)

[GlorifiedRice]

Ive gone twice...

BOTH times I felt like I had just drank lard.

ANDDDDD, they told me once that their diet teas were sweetened with Splenda, and later found out it was Aspartame. What if I was a PKU baby?

Edited July 6, 2010 by GlorifiedRice (log)

[JimS]

We don't have anything at all (besides a 7-11 and a Sheetz) where I live, but there are several Sonic's in the closest city. There are also several Checkers which is more or less a Sonic clone (or maybe Sonic is a Checkers clone. I don't know). I'm not a fan of the food from either of them (and I actually like fast food). Checkers has an awful, yet somehow addicting banana milkshake and Sonic has a huge variety of crazy beverages...so if I'm thirsty I may well visit.

[Chris Hennes]

Anyone else find their TV commercials with the carhops particularly annoying? I was watching this one on TV last night (warning, annoying! click at your own risk!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RhvhARsIyQ

Seriously, Sonic? What? Imagined McDonalds' response: "we got fries that actually taste good, yes we do..."

[sparrowgrass]

I have a love-hate relationship with their onion rings. They are real onion rings, unlike other fast food onion flavored rings, but the cornmeal batter is exceedingly sweet.

I am glad they are not perfect--I don't need to eat onion rings very often.

[teagal]

To me their shakes/ice cream taste funny. You can tell its pretty artificial. At Xmas I used to get the eggnog shake, but anymore I can't eat it.

[natasha1270]

I swear by the Strawberry-Lime Fruit Slushie, Popcorn Chicken and Hot Tots. They don't even cook the hot tots until you place the order! Oh, the only bad thing to me is they are over an hour away. If you are not eating the tots right away, it is imperative that you leave the bag open to vent, otherwise they will steam and lose some of their hot, salty, crisp deliciousness. A little splash or two of tequila in the slushie never hurt no-one either ;o) Not all locations have the popcorn chicken. My son recently had the foot long coney and loved it.

[Shelby]

The one time I went to a Sonic, in Kansas City, I only had a beverage. It was across the parking lot from my motel, and I was thirsty. I must say, judging only on beverages, Sonic did a better job than any chain I've been to. Not only is the selection of soft drinks pretty amazing, but also they have really good ice. So I'll be interested to try the food, which seems less promising.

AMEN on the ice! We have a Sonic just blocks from where I work. We actually buy their ice in bags so we can use it at work!

Their chili cheese dogs, corn dogs and the tots are all pretty decent. I get extra onions, cheese and jalapenos 'cause if you're going to do it, you might as well go all out

Oh, and I love their iced tea--NOT the sweet tea, just the plain iced tea.

[Shelby]

Sonic was voted "Best Happy Hour" by the readers of the Oklahoma City paper this past year. Made me want to cry, but maybe there's something to it.

LOL, well, it is great because the huge Route 44's are half price.

[Shelby]

Had to add that I also love their grape slushes

[Shelby]

One more thing lol, I totally forgot about the Supersonic Breakfast Burritos!!! They are SO good. Just do not look at the fat grams.

[devour]

Seconded on the breakfast burritos (on both counts). There aren't any where I am, but when the wife and I travel, we'll stop in at Sonic occasionally. FWIW, I think that the edibility of fast food joints is highly relative. Sonic is definitely a step up from Checkers/Rally's. I've had decent burgers there, nothing phenomenal, but better than other a number of fast food places. I do find that the west coast has better options for fast food hamburgers though.

[Chris Hennes]

Thanks for all the breakfast burrito recommendations: I had one the other day, and they really are pretty damn good. Way better than those things McDonalds sells. And available all day, to boot!

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

The closest Sonic to me is about a half hour away, so we generally only go to Sonic when on road trips. I always order the Chili Cheese Tots and a Cherry Limeade.

[suzilightning]

Getting out of my Hotmail account just now one of the side bars was that this summer Sonic is going to offer pickle juice slushies.      OH BE STILL MY HEART!!!!!!   Now I just have to FIND a Sonic near me.

[kayb]

Go South. They seem to be more prevalent down this way.

 

Get their onion rings, too. Nothing exceptional about the rings themselves -- I'm sure they're the bulk frozen variety -- but they're made with good, sweet onions and are fried PERFECTLY. (I get them whenever I forget how miserable the indigestion from them was the previous time...)

[Shelby]

 Pickle juice slushes???????????  Never heard of it.  Need one.

[kayb]

11 minutes ago, Shelby said:

 Pickle juice slushes???????????  Never heard of it.  Need one.

 

Have you ever had a Koolickle?

 

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, kayb said:

 

Have you ever had a Koolickle?

 

No.  I'm feeling very sheltered and out of touch 

[kayb]

35 minutes ago, Shelby said:

No.  I'm feeling very sheltered and out of touch 

 

Oh, honey. Go get  you a jar of those big whole kosher dill pickles. Pour off the brine. Make up a pitcher of cherry KoolAid, using only 3/4 of the water called for. Pour it over the pickles. Set them in the fridge for a week.

 

Trust me on this. A staple of the Little League ballpark in the South.

 

[suzilightning]

58 minutes ago, Shelby said:

 Pickle juice slushes???????????  Never heard of it.  Need one.

@Shelby  remember I'M the person who NEVER has leftover pickle juice because I drink it!!! This is a new thing according  to the article.

 

Unlike @kayb I'm not a big kosher dill person but more a spicy bread and butter person.

[Lisa Shock]

For me, Sonic is all about the drinks. There are quite a few locations in Phoenix, and it's great to pick up a cold drink in the summertime here. My current favorite is the frozen lemonade, but the ice cream slush (half ice cream, half slush, blended) is pretty good for a cheap treat.

 

They also offer a grilled cheese sandwich for under $2.

 

I like pickle juice and will probably try the drink at some point. Here, 2pm-4pm is happy hour with half price drinks.

[MelissaH]

I don't care for Sonic's food, as everything seems to be too salty and greasy for my taste. But the drinks—not so much this time of year, when temps are still mostly in the 20s (°F), it seems, but in the summer? One of my guilty pleasures is to head down to the Sonic not far from the rink where I play hockey once a week, and get something cold and sweet for the ride home. It hits the spot after working my tail off for an hour and a half!