I'd never actually been to a Sonic before but I had always wondered about them. So it was perfect when they built one very close by! For a few weeks, the place was so packed that we didn't even try to go. Incredible lines! We went the other night though and things have calmed down to the point where we could just drive right in.
What makes this place unique is the "drive-in" setting. You pull into a parking space and right there you have a full menu. When you know what you want, you press the button and tell the attendant your order. You then pay by card right there and soon enough your food is brought right out to you. That's pretty much all there is to it. Kinda neat I thought, I dug the 50's vibe.
So we've established that the experience itself is kinda cool, but how is the food?
I ordered a hamburger and large fries, my wife got a cheeseburger, regular fries, and a milkshake, and our daughter got the chicken strips, tater tots, and a chocolate milk. This was a comfort food meal because we are all recovering from colds!
Our meal was delivered to the car pretty quick. I was kinda bummed to see that they sent me two cheeseburgers instead of hamburgers. This always happens to me, its some sort of kink in the universe that I have come to accept.
Let's rate the food:
Hamburger, Chicken Strips, and Cheeseburger: Good overall. No better than what you'd get at Wendy's, Burger King, or McDonalds though. One of my hamburger buns was actually a little stale, kinda hard. They were kind of sloppily put together too, I've seen better hamburgers "built" in similar fast food places. The chicken strips looked good, my daughter liked them.
Fries and Tater Tots: The fries were decent, but Burger King and McDonalds easily bests them. Their "large" fry is really not all that large actually, kind of surprising in this day and age of "value meals". The tater tots were absolutely atrocious though. They had obviously been made about 3 weeks earlier and were left to sit under a light bulb before being served to us. I'd be embarrassed to send something like that out. And Sonic is batting 1.000 because both the fries and tater tots were lukewarm at best.
Chocolate Milkshake: Unfortunately, the "chocolate" milkshake was not as rich as what you might have gotten back in the "drive-in" days. This is your basic vanilla ice cream mixed with chocolate syrup to create a very "vanilla" chocolate milkshake, if you will. Boooring.
It all amounts to a rather stale experience that the cool 50's drive-in concept just couldn't save. Perhaps if the place had been swamped I could understand, but there is no reason for our food to have been sloppy, lukewarm, and just plain unsatisfying.
What this comes down to is that if you need the campy drive-in experience and don't mind throwing your diet away on mediocre food, then you should go here. Me? If I'm doing a burger and fries (which is very rarely) I'm going to get it from a place that at least serves me fresh and hot food. You can easily top the food with a trip to Wendy's, BK, or McDonalds. Or if you really want to do it in style, go to Five Guys Burger and Fries. read more