Why So Many People Can't Stand Sonic

Sonic Drive-In may not be at the top of the quick-service food chain, so to speak, but it still has plenty of fans. The fast food purveyor, nicknamed America's Drive-In, began all the way back in the 1950s and has since grown to nearly 3,500 restaurants nationwide. Sonic Drive-In aficionados keep returning for the chain's drinks, sides, and entrees, which range from burgers to chicken tenders to hot dogs, but as is true of any large food brand, it has its detractors.

Even some folks who are nostalgic for Sonic have acknowledged on social media that the food isn't what it used to be. This may be because many locations are now franchised (perhaps indicating reduced corporate oversight), or maybe it's because Inspire Brands acquired the Sonic Corporation in 2018, a change that potentially affected the restaurant's workflow and overall quality.

To get at the root of the issue (at least as far as customers are concerned), we combed through online forums and review aggregators like Reddit, Tripadvisor, and Quora for specifics. From weird-tasting burger patties to unheated food to long waits, Sonic's patrons have found plenty to dislike about the once-beloved chain. Let's unpack their grievances and see why Sonic has been struggling to stay in business.

Some of Sonic's most popular entrees are its burgers and sandwiches — they're among the first category shown on the chain's online menu after combos and drinks — but some fans believe the quality of these mainstays has dropped significantly, particularly in the beef department. In a Reddit thread posted to r/SonicDriveIn (not to be confused with r/SonicTheHedgehog), patrons of the restaurant chain claim its burger patties have a strange, unpleasant flavor. As one commenter wrote, "The burgers [don't] taste like meat. Not sure what's in it but I won't eat there anymore. It's past nasty." Others cite an unappetizing smell as the reason they don't enjoy the brand's beef-based offerings: "Their burgers stink at times," one person wrote. "Hamburgers are not supposed to stink. Last Burger I got stunk. ... Don't know if it's fish on the same grill or what, that's enough for me."

While there's no consensus about the cause of these burgers' unpalatable qualities, some folks allege that the chain's ground beef contains unlisted add-ins, as one Redditor hypothesized: "[A] few years ago, Sonic decided to blend into their beef patties 25 to 30% ground mushrooms in order to use less beef reducing beef impact on the environment." There's some truth to this: In 2018, Sonic did introduce two burgers that incorporated mushrooms into the patties' ground beef mixture, but these items — called Signature Slingers — are no longer listed on the chain's menu, and the website's description of its classic Sonic Cheeseburger states that each sandwich features a "100% pure seasoned beef patty."

Even more so than its burgers, Sonic is beloved for its practically endless drink selection. The chain has even capitalized on this fandom, like when it collaborated with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie to introduce two new soda concoctions in 2024. We even reviewed Sonic's Tajín Strawberry Mangonada Slush following its March 2025 release, but unfortunately, our taste-tester was less than enthusiastic about the new product, and this seems to be a growing theme among those for whom the brand's drink selection is usually a highlight.

As one person wrote in a Tripadvisor review, "[T]he drinks were awful, tasted like water even [though] I ordered a strawberry daiquiri ... I also ordered a cherry limeade and it was clearly missing the cherry flavor or the sprite wasn't mixed right." Others similarly complain of watered-down or ice-heavy drinks from the chain, and one person on Reddit even noted that multiple drinks they purchased from the fast food establishment "tasted of fry grease." Another Reddit post indicates that poor drink quality may be a widespread issue: "[T]here's a few locations in general Ive been to that the machines must be disgusting as the ice tastes like mold."

Commenters agreed that the likely cause of this quality drop was poorly cleaned equipment. While Mashed is unable to verify these claims conclusively, a 2020 health inspection report shared by BainbridgeGA noted that one Sonic location had "dead insects under and behind drink machine," as well as "Excessive build up and splatter ... on cooking equipment, shelving, drink machines, etc."

This issue is hardly unique to Sonic, but who wants to visit a fast food restaurant (emphasis on fast) only to watch the minutes tick by while sitting at a standstill in the drive-thru queue? Some patrons of the chain have expressed frustration over long waits, whether they join the end of a long line or pull in behind just one or two other cars. One person wrote on Tripadvisor that they pulled into Sonic "for a 'quick' refreshing cherry limeade," only to witness a flurry of miscommunication involving mixed-up orders, wandering wait staff, and several bewildering cash transactions. They concluded, "Close to 15 minutes and total confusion for all."

Even for those who eschew the drive-thru, the restaurant's titular drive-in stalls aren't much faster. One customer on Reddit reported waiting 40 minutes just for someone to take their order over the speaker, and on their next visit, "it was over 20 minutes and then I ended up leaving." They chalked this up to a potential issue with the intercom system, which they believe failed to alert the staff to their presence. They explained, "I was waiting for 5 minutes in the queue, and then I had to join the queue again but at the bottom again."

Not every Sonic customer, however, reports such drawbacks. Several commenters in the above Reddit thread expressed surprise at others' lengthy wait times, like one person who wrote, "One dude runs to my car every time like his life depends on it." Another described a similar drive-in experience in which the employee delivering their order apologized for the three-minute wait.

Sonic is a supposed haven for beverage connoisseurs, but sometimes it misses the mark, and its sodas aren't the only drink item that customers find fault with. We've ranked Sonic's milkshakes from worst to best, so we know as well as anyone that some of its flavors are duds (we put its Caramel Classic Shake in last place, if you're curious), but some patrons report that their Sonic shakes are coming out poorly mixed, resulting in an unpleasant texture. As one person wrote on Reddit, the chain served them "the worst milkshake I have ever had in my life." They went on to describe a chunky, icy texture and claimed the concoction "tasted like water with whipped cream on it." According to them, the staff refused to provide a refund.

Another Sonic customer in the same thread recounted a similar experience: "The shake I got was watery. It wasn't even just thin, it literally looked it had been sitting out." It's unclear what type of shake these Redditors purchased, as Sonic offers several in the Frozen Zone section of its menu. Its Classic Shakes are made with a vanilla soft-serve base and are available in flavors like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and banana, whereas its Master Shakes and Sonic Blasts feature mix-ins like cookies and brownie pieces, resulting in a chunkier — but hopefully not watery — texture.

When Sonic announced in the spring of 2024 that it would be introducing a new, crinkle-cut version of its french fries — called Groovy Fries — in the near future, fans were divided. Some folks on Reddit reacted positively to the change, with one person writing, "These fries do look better than traditional Sonic Fries," in reference to a photo of the new item. Others expressed hesitation, like one Redditor who announced, "Crinkle cut is my least favorite French fry." Though we enjoyed Sonic's Groovy Fries when we gave them a taste-test, other folks were less inclined to celebrate.

Chief among customers' complaints was the fact that Sonic didn't simply introduce a new type of fry to its menu — it replaced its old fries entirely. As one person wrote in a Reddit post about the brand's so-called Groovy Fries, "They completely replace [something] that's been working for decades. It's ridiculous." Commenters in the thread expressed similar sentiments, with one person writing, "They're just crinkle cut fries. It's mildly infuriating how they're trying to hype them up to be something more than they are. I also liked the old fries."

People weren't just disappointed to see a core menu item go the way of the dodo, either — even once patrons had a chance to try Sonic's Groovy Fries, they remained unimpressed. As one Redditor so eloquently described, "They taste like crispy grease sticks with a hint of potato."

Sonic is well aware that its customer base enjoys a good pickle — it released two perfect products for pickle lovers in 2022 with its Big Dill Cheeseburger and Pickle Fries — so some fans of the fast food chain were surprised when its regular sliced pickles seemingly took a quality hit. As one person wrote of the topping in a Reddit thread, "They do not taste great nor does the taste complement the rest of the burger." While they didn't elaborate on what, exactly, turned them off of the pickles taste-wise, they did surmise that the chain "may have switched to kosher from dill."

While Sonic's menu doesn't specify what kind of sliced pickles it uses on its burgers and sandwiches, it does describe its Pickle Fries as "Dill pickles cut in a fry shape and fried to pickle perfection!" If the chain is only stocking one type of pickle for all of its items, then the above Redditor may be correct in their assumption. But this subtle (alleged) switch isn't the only issue Sonic patrons have with the chain's pickles. As one customer wrote on Tripadvisor, "[T]he pickles and onions tasted as if they had been dipped in jalapeño juice." While unexplained, this surprise boost in heat would likely sour plenty of customers on the restaurant's pickled offerings.

Few things are more disappointing than pulling up to a drive-thru expecting a hot, fresh meal only to receive a bag of cold, stale food instead. This phenomenon is a common complaint among Sonic customers online, and it's easy to understand their frustration. One customer who wrote a Tripadvisor review described a return journey to their local Sonic, where they previously abandoned the drive-thru line after waiting nearly 20 minutes for their food. Of their second trip, they wrote that "The burgers and onion rings were cold ... not even room temperature." Not only was their food unpleasantly cold, but the burger patties also appeared old, despite the sandwich's produce looking fresh.

Another dissatisfied customer described a similar experience on Reddit, writing that when they received their order, "The burger meat was disgusting, the pop corn chicken wasn't crispy and had no flavor. Both items were cold." This upsetting result wasn't exclusive to one location, either. They went on to claim that they visited multiple Sonic stores across several states over the course of six months, and cold, low-quality food was a "regular occurrence."

Sonic may not be anyone's go-to restaurant for ultra-fresh fare, but that doesn't mean drive-thru customers want to be handed a bag dripping with grease, either. Unfortunately, some of Sonic's food has led patrons to complain about just that. One reviewer on Tripadvisor said of the chain's onion rings, "...they were greasy and not crunchy like they should have been." This is also a theme among Reddit comments, with one person writing of their Sonic order, "It all just tastes ... wet. And greasy." While a bit of grease is to be expected on fried items like onion rings and french fries, describing an entire meal as wet is far from high praise.

Another Redditor hypothesized that a change to the menu's burgers may have heralded this shift, writing, "[I]t's like they rebranded to smash burgers and now everything is sooooo greasy." Sonic did release its two-patty Sonic Smasher in the summer of 2024, and it's still on the menu, along with a three-patty variation. Still, there's no conclusive evidence that this change altered the quality of Sonic's other items, not to mention that it still sells non-smashed burgers, like its standard Sonic Cheeseburger and its Cheesy Bacon Sonic Stack. Two other potential explanations for excessive greasiness in the chain's fried food are an overcrowded fryer, which may result in uneven cooking, and oil that hasn't been heated to the proper temperature, which may cause the food to absorb more of that oil.

Shrinkflation has become a popular buzzword over the last several years, and while it's unclear if this phenomenon — in which products shrink while prices stay the same — is present in Sonic's kitchens, some customer complaints do point in that direction. In particular, the chain's burger patties have come under fire for seemingly getting smaller, despite prices not reflecting this alleged change. As one person noted on Reddit, the restaurant's burgers are "different, thicker and smaller diameter," though it's unclear when they believe this switch occurred. Some more cynical commenters cited this as a large-scale issue: "...they are shrinking everything," one Redditor wrote. "The sausage patties are half oz smaller, [and] they got crappy small chicken patties."

Sonic's menu doesn't clarify how many ounces of meat are in each burger, sausage, or chicken patty (except for its self-explanatory Quarter Pound Double Cheeseburger, of course), so these claims remain tenuous. One Redditor who works at the chain, however, actually complained of the inverse issue: Some patties, rather than being too thick or small in diameter, are far too thin: "I think it's a manufacturing issue," they wrote. "[O]ur patties have been so thin lately that they are falling apart after we cook them." Whether the chain's patties are too large, too small, or too thin, all of these grievances point to quality assurance as an ongoing struggle for the chain.

You've probably heard someone announce upon trying a new or unfamiliar meat that it tastes like chicken — after all, the protein is known for its unobtrusive flavor profile — but what should Sonic fans do if the chain's chicken stops tasting like chicken? One dissatisfied diner wrote on Reddit that their chicken from Sonic tasted like it was "made out of some type of glue and rubber meat like substance." They blamed the unpleasant texture on meat that was synthesized from animal cells, a practice that U.S. officials approved for two companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, in 2023. Sonic's website gives no indication that its restaurants use cultured meat, so it's unlikely that its chicken is secretly synthetic, but the texture complaints remain.

Other customers have expressed similar qualms, with one Redditor writing, "Popcorn chicken [has] just become the fatty parts of breast or thighs that get trimmed off ... some are rubbery." One possible explanation for the chicken's poor quality is the amount of time that passes between when it's cooked and when it's handed to the customer. One commenter on a Quora thread explained, "If you ordered crispy chicken and it didn't take 5 minutes to get to you, it didn't come straight from the fryer. That's not to say that it's old, it just wasn't thrown in the fryer the minute you ordered it." They clarified that employees are expected to deliver your food within three minutes of receiving your order, indicating that some items may be prepped and heated in advance.

Most people probably keep at least a couple of pre-made frozen foods in their icebox for those days when the task of cooking seems insurmountable, but receiving frozen food from a quick-service restaurant just seems like a waste of money. This is no doubt why several Sonic customers have taken to the internet to express disappointment over the food they ordered from the chain, which they claim carried a distinctive, freezer-like taste. One dissatisfied patron simply wrote on Tripadvisor that the "Food taste[s] like typical frozen food at this location." A commenter on a Reddit thread seconded this criticism, comparing the quality to "the sh*ttiest walmart brand frozen food."

There are few specifics among these claims that Sonic keeps its ingredients on ice, though another person did write on Reddit that the restaurant's chili cheese tots — despite being the "least wors[t]" item they tried — still "tasted frozen and like cardboard." In a Reddit AMA (or Ask Me Anything) hosted by a Sonic employee, one commenter wrote that their chicken sandwich from Sonic was "FROZEN in the middle," to which the employee replied, "Yeah, pretty much everything comes in frozen, so someone just didn't cook it all the way." Worth noting once again, however, is that many Sonic locations are franchised, meaning the food's quality may vary significantly by location.