Sadly, Sonic is no longer what it once was. As the drive-in has fallen into disrepair, the owner(s) have chosen to scale back and no longer repair or update anything... Once upon a time, each parking spot had a usable ordering menu where one could place an order via their intercom system. Nowadays? Not so much, as it appears they are forcing patrons to order online so they no longer have to maintain the drive-in in working order. Sad indeed. WHY any entrepreneur would invest in building a drive-in only to allow it to fall into disarray is simply beyond me. Perhaps it is just someone's Tax Writeoff nowadays? What was once an almost always full establishment, is now a shell of its former self. In years passed the issue was (more often than not) that their Slushee machine was simply Out-Of-Order. Nowadays, you get to play hunt for a stall that works! While there may be a menu board present at any given stall, it may/maynot function any longer. A simple Out-Of-Order sign, or even a basic traffic cone to denote "No-Service-Here" at this stall appears beyond their capacity. While the food quality has always been satisfactory, the effort to obtain such grows increasingly burdensome. Its another one of those cases where "I can read the handwriting on the wall" as things fall further and further into disarray. I'd love to see the local Sonic make a comeback, but its recent track record is continuing to go awry. read more

On 8-30-26 brought my grandkids to the sonic in Athens. We had two orders of these disgusting cheese sticks that had no cheese left on the inside and then we're all stuck together. read more

Sonic Drive-In - Burgers Near Me - Athens, Tennessee

By far, the worst Sonic we've ever visited! Attitude of employees from taking our simple order for 2 to delivery was terrible! Food was horrible after waiting over 30 minutes for it! read more

The customer service sucks ..they act like it bothers them to do what they r paid to do...cant even make a drink right ..ughh..not being mean just being honest but they dont even deserve the one star.. read more

One star. Employees lately hate their jobs and are incredibly rude. Ordered 3 condiments for two of three entrees because that's what the app allows. Only two condiments were in the bag. Hit the button to discuss with a team member (although, it's clear that the girl that was waiting on us hated her job. I was trying to be conversational and ask how she was. She was clearly exasperated and did not want to communicate). They came on the speaker and said they didnt give us the condiments because they're extra and the online didn't charge us for them so they just put in two of the condiments. Excuse me? What? The app allows three condiments per entree. I bought three entrees. That doesn't seem like a lot of condiments going around for free. Especially because Sonic is one of the highest priced fast food chains in the country. That being said, no one even explained that to us. They just chose 2 of the 6 condiments and didn't say a word? That's not good customer service. If someone had came out and said "hey, I'm so sorry, we really can't do all six of those condiments. Which two would you like?" (Even if two for a five piece tender is RIDICULOUS) I would have completely understood and would have selected the two I wanted the most. That being said, as a business owner myself, they really need to take ownership and give the product, make note, and try to fix the issue on the backend. if their app is incorrect, make sure corporate understands that this is cutting into profits. I understand these are independently owned, but that doesn't matter in the scheme of things. Your customers aren't creating the price themselves. The app is giving it to them. If it's wrong, you need to take ownership and do something about it. You can't pass the issue to your customer. That's the worst business decision you can ever make. I've been in marketing (for multi-billion dollar companies) for years and own my own businesses as well. That is just not the way. I explained the app allows for three condiments per entree and she just stopped talking to us. I won't go back. Your staff needs to be trained better than that, and I understand better than anyone that one-off situations happen and sometimes employees have bad days. But this is a frequent issue at this particular location. The management/leadership team is clearly not doing their job effectively enough if these young adults working for them are this miserable every day. This was my original review years ago: Five stars to whoever was running the show tonight at Sonic. Had a small issue with my blast and she fixed the problem and went above and beyond. Very sweet girl. I wish I had gotten her name. read more

The fries were extremely salty, the milkshake had chunks not just Oreos like it was spoiled, we didn't get our sauces either. When we called the woman on the phone didn't seem to really care all that much, very poor customer service. read more

Terrible customer service and the food is always wrong! The employees are rude to elderly people, would not recommend this place for anybody read more

Sat for 45 minutes with no food in site so I called up customer service and had them refund it. I don't know if they are understaffed or have bad management, it was a very disappointing experience. read more

For the past three months this Sonic has gone from being mediocre at best to being the slowest fast food place I've ever ordered from. The wait times have gone from 10-15min to being over 30min for three food items. I understand as someone who has worked food before that this is not the employees, clearly management is not efficient or is experiencing staffing shortages. They are lucky there aren't many options in Athens. read more

My son and I stopped by and ordered 2 double bacon cheeseburgers and 2 large fries and two medium strawberry shakes. It took about 5 minutes to get the food and we promptly left to go home and eat it, when we got home and dumped out our fries on our plates there were about 20 brown burnt pieces of something in the bottom of both fries. Those took up space for a 1/4 fry container and ontop of that who the heck is on the fryer that they cant dump out the baskets before adding more fries to it ? Anyways I called them and left a complaint with the manager. Hopefully he will make sure that it doesn't happen again.????? read more

Sonic Drive-In - Burnt mystery crap that was in the fry containers .what is it ????not edible thats for sure!!! - Burgers Near Me - Athens, Tennessee

Very poor service. Repeatedly asked for light ice and I got a full cup of ice. Food was warm, but this is ridiculous. It wasn't busy or happy hour. read more

Sonic Drive-In - This is not light ice... - Burgers Near Me - Athens, Tennessee

We pulled up at 11:24pm and they close at midnight. They wouldn't take our burger order 36 minutes before they close because they were closing down. read more

If I could select no stars I would. Last Thursday night, we went to Sonic and waited 45 minutes for mediocre food. They made a mistake on their end on my husband's order and when he called the carhop named Lily back he was informed it would be $3 more to get what he ordered versus what they bought out. He wasn't happy about that but he wasn't going to argue. By this point he just wanted to eat and leave. A shift leader came out because he wanted to talk to someone in charge. Arabella Simpson was the manager but her assistant that we dealt with was rude, unprofessional, and incompetent. If he was disrespectful, it would've been different, but they said if he wanted a refund he'd have to return all the food. That was a problem because I'd already eat mine. She threatened to call the cops if he didn't give her the untouched wrong combo they'd bought out after the mistake their staff made and after he'd give them the extra money. All he wanted by this point was the refund on his meal only. Instead we had a snotty attitude, no food, and they basically got $15 for NOTHING. I called back and spoke to Ms. Simpson and heard excuses.. there's NO excuse to treat someone who's been a loyal customer for years that way. I called twice to their customer service number and got lied to about hearing back from the district manager or owner. So basically, I'm to understand as long as they cheat someone, they don't care if they treat their customers right. We never had a problem before but that was pitiful service and dirty to lie and be so greedy they can't refund someone's money when they make a mistake on their end. We deserve a refund and apology and your business is a huge disappointment for letting your staff and corporate treat someone that way. read more

This is how you Tails. Get it. Get it. I've stopped in Athens Tennessee one too many times when I'm on my way from the north to the South or the South to the north (you get the idea, and East-West too if I'm honest), (ands West-East), (you get the idea), and it has a little bit of everything. This Sonic is good for the only thing that I ever go to Sonic for which is fresh banana milkshakes. They taste pretty good and they are made with real chunks of banana and you can't really argue with that. On the other hand. You really can. read more

Sonic Drive-In - This is how you poison America - Burgers Near Me - Athens, Tennessee

If I could give zero stars I would. We've never had a good experience at this Sonic and it seems within the last six months EVERY SINGLE SONIC we've gone too has gone to crap. Absolutely ZERO strawberries in a strawberry slush and now this sonic in Athens just said they were so backed up they weren't taking anymore orders?!! WTH?!! WHO DOES THAT?! It's one thing if equipment is broken but just bc you're too busy?! Get a grip! Customer service is dead in this country and has definitely left the building with this company. So sad. Sonic was always a fun and delicious place to go! WHY CANT WE GIVE ZERO STARS?! They don't even deserve the ONE!! read more

Food was old. Burger over cooked dry and seemed like it was made yesterday. Fries were cold old and stale, hot dogs were a soggy mess. Popcorn chicken was burnt. Over all horrible read more

Typical Sonic but smaller than most. Same food and drinks but this one seems to have nicer girls working and they can actually make sweet tea, which is my normal drink here. Also like the mozzarella fried. Good stuff read more

I have stopped by this sonic a few times now and the service has been good. My food had also been decent. We should keep in mind that Sonic is a fast food place and they make around minimum wage so i really don't think we should hold them to high standards. read more

My 8yr old daughter ate only cheese sticks and an ocean water at about 10am this morning about 1pm she started throwing up and diarrhea bad (food poison bad) also stomach cramps was awful the whole time this was from Athens tn store finally about 9pm she's stopped and is asleep read more

The wait time, even to place an order gets longer and longer each time I stop. it took almost 30 minutes to place my order today and 30 more to wait on food. read more

Business has been slacking for awhile now, Always a huge wait, my order always ends out wrong. It literally just took an hour for a dr pepper! The employees are rude something needs to be changed! read more

Worst Sonic experience ever. Never even tasted the food because I left after waiting over 30 minutes for a chicken sandwich. How hard is it to make a sandwich in less than 30 minutes? read more

20 minutes for a cherry limeade and a small strawberry custard. Still no-show. Told a neighboring server to cancel. Get a "slack-jawed" response "okay." No thanks. read more

Every single time I go to sonic they get my order wrong. They either add something we don't want on the burger or leave something off the burger we DID want. And there is one girl there that has an attitude from hades about taking a meal order. Love the cheese sticks though! read more

Slow service. Can't depend on getting in and out for lunch in time. Food isn't always good. Stopped going here. Too many good choices in the area to eat here. read more

Its a good fast food place, haven't gotten a wrong order yet and most times they are pretty fast about the delivery.

This is the 5th time me and my husband has gotten a milkshake for the 1/2 off after 8 p.m. and I am severely disappointed yet again! I have tried 4 times prior to over look this but enough is enough. I always get a chocolate and banana milkshake with no whip cream, no cherry, and of course for the 5th time (I don't know why I keep wasting my money at this establishment) the banana is practically WHOLE at the bottom, and the milkshake is so thick that I could not even get a drop out of the straw. Is this how the manager trained their employees to do? Or are we just dealing with slackers that need to move on from this place? Either way it is ridiculous. They tried to charge us full price for the shakes, when clearly it was 8:33 PM. I will take my business else where because apparently sonic doesn't have it together in Athens, TN. Thanks, but no freakin' thanks! read more