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Author Topic: Our experience at SONIC Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-18-2011 08:39 AM                        And just a piece of Sonic trivia to make this all relevant to Film-Tech Back when I was trying to catalog all of the movie theatres in the history of Alabama, the city directories for Huntsville for several years under the theatre listings had the Sonic Drive-In. Now Sonic would make perfect sense as a drive-in name in Huntsville, home of the Space Center and the cult of Werner Von Braun, but after posting my listings online I was informed that it was really just the Sonic Drive In fast food place. Moral of the story, I guess, is get two sources.  |  IP: Logged Edward Havens Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 614 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 04-18-2011 09:24 AM                     Seriously, does one expect gourmet food at a fast-food burger joint? I do love their Cherry Lime-Aids, though. About the only thing I get whenever I go there, which is about once a year.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-18-2011 10:07 AM                     Although I have never had a "great" meal at a Sonic, I haven't had a bad one either. It is what it is... fast food. All the Sonic drive-ins I have been to were in the South. I haven't been to one anywhere else. I imagine you guys might be having a similar problem to what I have seen at Waffle House. There are a couple of Waffle Houses near here, in Ohio, just west of Cleveland. They are nothing like an "authentic" WH in the South. There's just a culture that most Yanks don't understand. It is that culture that makes the WH experience. The food at Waffle House is not gourmet food by any stretch of the imagination but the culture and their way of doing business are a big part of the reason why people go there. People know what to expect when they go to Waffle House. I bet this is part of the problem that people are experiencing with Sonic. Like Waffle House, Sonic is a regional business which has expanded outside its original geography. In so doing, they have expanded beyond their cultural base. When people go to a Sonic Drive-in, expecting to get what they have experienced or heard about in an "authentic" Sonic, they are disappointed. There's also a Krispy Kreme donut shop in Erie and I have noticed the same thing. It's just not the same experience as you would get at a Krispy Kreme in Winston-Salem. Krispy Kreme, up here in the North, is just another donut. I have never had a surly waitress at a Sonic. I have only seen one waitress who didn't wear skates. I asked her why and she told me that her boss wouldn't let her wear skates anymore because she fell and dropped an order all over the ground. I have always left my empties on the little shelf under the speaker. I have never had trouble getting table service if I didn't want to eat in my car. I just parked around back so as not to take up one of the drive-in bays then walk over and sit down. There has always been a waitress in five minutes or less. I always tell the waitress to just keep the change and I often make sure to offer enough cash for there to be a healthy tip. No, I never expected Sonic to have great food but I certainly prefer it to Mickey D's or Burger King. However, next time I see a Sonic and it's not in the "original" area, I'll be more wary about going there.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-18-2011 11:14 AM                     quote: Wayne Keyser "This your burger, sir? You know that's over 850 calories and your limit is 350? License and registration please." 850 calories? Is that all? Must be the cheeseburger with mayo. Going with mustard instead of mayo saves 100 calories and a good amount of cholesterol. How about a Western Bacon Six Dollar Burger from Carl's Jr.? That's 1000 calories, 53 grams of fat (22g saturated), 130mg of cholesterol and a whopping 2370mg of sodium. I don't know if Burger King still sells the Triple Whopper with Cheese. If you get one with mayo that brings the damage to 1250 calories. BK tries VERY HARD to slather mayonnaise on all their burgers. I don't like mayo on burgers and for whatever reason BK locations I've visited through the years screw up the order loading the burger with mayo anyway. This especially happens at the drive through. Because, like Joe Pesci says, "they fuck you at the drive through!" So I usually avoid Burger King on those rare occasions where I eat out at a burger joint. The only time I visit BK when I'm with a group of people and someone else in the group insists on going there. It doesn't happen often. Braums can sometimes be pretty bad about the mayo thing too. One of my friends doesn't like any condiments on burgers at all. No mayo, no mustard and not even any ketchup. Dry. One visit, it took the Braums folks 3 times to get his burger made right. Fast food workers can get into a certain "thinking on auto pilot" zone, so it's easy for any special order to be goofed. By some of these calorie numbers, McDonald's most popular burgers, the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder with Cheese seem like diet food item (540 calories for a Big Mac and 510 for a Quarter Pounder with Cheese).  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-18-2011 11:26 AM                        quote: Randy Stankey No, I never expected Sonic to have great food but I certainly prefer it to Mickey D's or Burger King. Well...I wasn't expecting gourmet either but with the amazing amounts of traffic surrounding the place even 6 weeks after it opened, I thought it would be a little better than average fast food, at least. It wasn't. Our local Dairy Queen serves up a much better burger and milkshake. We did make a point to look around for trash cans ANYWHERE, because we were just wondering what we were supposed to do with our stuff. There was not a single trash can on that property that I saw. I truly don't remember seeing a spot below the menu board for trash to sit....my wife is going to be in Billings this week so she's going to check that out.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-18-2011 11:52 AM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Our local Dairy Queen serves up a much better burger and milkshake. I wish we still had some Dairy Queen locations in Lawton. The nearest ones are in Anadarko and Chickasha (30-40 miles). Braums has sort of replaced Dairy Queen here. They have a similar burgers and ice cream store theme, plus Braums has a grocery area of the store. I still prefer a Blizzard from DQ to a Braums Mix at Braums.  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-18-2011 12:37 PM                     quote: Chris Slycord ...underlining the fact that those ice dispensers were cleaned far less often than the toilets. And we all know how rarely the toilets are cleaned in fast food restaurants so imagine how rarely the ice machines are cleaned out. I stopped using ice at our local Chipotle. I was getting ice from the dispenser once and a big chunk of unidentifiable gunk came out of it into my cup. It was a gray matter and looked much like a big booger. I was so grossed out. It doesn't help that the place is slammed no matter what time you go in there. I doubt they ever have time to clean and there are new employees every time I go there. I also stopped using their online ordering. Every time I have used it, except for once, they either "didn't get my order", "didn't make it yet" even though the time had passed for it to be ready or their "system was down". Whatever. I wouldn't even go to Chipotle anymore if my wife didn't love it so much. I think it is overrated and the menu sucks. How can a place survive on such a limited menu? I liked Qdoba much better since the menu was much more varied. Unfortunately, they couldn't make it because of their location and they closed.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-18-2011 01:24 PM                        In the past few years I've pretty much gotten used to the idea that the food you eat is probably loaded with vile germs, even if you make it at home (sanitized your kitchen counter lately?) and this is why we're provided with an immune system, so it's best to just grit your teeth and enjoy your meal. The best thing is to just worry about the bugs you can actually see.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-18-2011 01:28 PM                     When I eat at Chipotle I have a beer (Dos Equis, Modelo Especial, Tecate, etc. depending on what's available -but not Corona). Restaurant ice can be a hazard. The ice makers definitely must be cleaned frequently just like anything else. One of my friends is a general manager of a local restaurant and he's pretty insistent on keeping the whole place clean, not just the dining area. He's also the same one who eats burgers "dry." He won't visit certain restaurants at all, such as Taco Bell. He knew the whole fake beef thing long before the press got hold of the news. A disgusting ice story example: back in the 1990s, some friends and I spent a weekend partying in Dallas. We stayed at a hotel in Mesquite and ate breakfast Sunday morning at a nearby Denny's before heading back to Oklahoma. My glass of ice water had an ice cube with a cockroach leg frozen inside of it. Needless to say, we didn't get charged for our breakfast. Still, I didn't eat or drink much of anything. Eating breakfast with a hangover is bad enough without finding a roach leg in a drink!  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-18-2011 01:44 PM                     I agree with the local drive in thing Josh! Some of them in Utah are superb... There are a couple of good ones near where I live and we also have an In&Out less than a mmile away plus Salt City Burgers and Tony Burgers. The Five Guys burgers are ok but theor fries are awful. Only been there one time. The other three above mentioned places all have great fresh cut fries. Mark  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 04-18-2011 03:05 PM                        I agree on Salt City Burger. Good place. Our first Sonic opened around ten years ago and also had lines around the block for weeks. Said location lasted maybe five years, sat abandoned, and has since been demolished and replaced by a Hardee's. I used to hit Sonic in the morning for either a strawberry or lime slush, but the service is so bad at the local Sonics that I gave up on them, and they're kind of out of the way for me now anyway. The advantage to Sonic is that they'll make pretty much anything you can dream up with the available ingredients on hand. My favorite thing to custom order was a Chili Breakfast Toaster, which was a breakfast toaster sandwich with chili, egg, and cheese.  |  IP: Logged Keri Delio Film Handler Posts: 26 From: Carrollton, TX, USA Registered: Mar 2011 posted 04-18-2011 04:06 PM                     The Cherry Limeade & slushes are o.k. at Sonic but that's about it. I've eaten at Chipotle once & only once. Ordered a chicken taco plate & got bones in it which grossed me out. Not long after eating there it came right back up which was even more gross It was nothing compared to the food poisoning I got from eating at a Taco Bell though - got so dehydrated I had to go to the hospital Honestly my husband & I eat fast food maybe once every 2-3 months at most. We like the burgers at Carl's Jrs & Dairy Queen has decent chicken strip baskets.  |  IP: Logged Hal Smith Film Handler Posts: 10 From: Edmond, OK US Registered: Jun 2007 posted 04-18-2011 04:50 PM                     Worst food...Ever! There's a locally owned gas station one and one-half miles east of the Sonic on Waterloo Road that buys bulk fresh hamburger from the small packing house next door, forms the patty by hand, and squashes them flat on the grill with a spatula. And I want a Sonic burger because?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 04-18-2011 06:08 PM                     ..Think I'll get some Harmon's KFC instead .... But, DEE's in SLC aint too bad either...nor Sconecutters...  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 04-18-2011 07:27 PM                        Didn't Sonic start as a GAS station? Maybe they're still in the GAS business! Louis  |  IP: Logged

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