Sonic Drive-In Menu Prices

The Sonic Drive-In is a fast-food restaurant chain that stands out in the large crowd of fast-food restaurants. They set themselves apart from others through their carhops on their roller skates and their innovative drive-in system. It is a very successful business that has been ranked as the best in the industry by different business publications like QSR Magazine.

Usually, the clients drive into the covered drive-in stall of the Sonic restaurant, order their food and drinks via an intercom speaker system, and after that drive on the spaces designated for cars. Once the order is done, the restaurant’s carhops bring your food so you will not have to get out of your car. Also, the majority of the restaurants offer dine-in (via patio seats) and drive-thru options as a response to the client’s demand for diversification in services. Nonetheless, the Sonic Drive-in prices are the same no matter which option you choose.

In the table below you will find the latest prices of the Sonic Drive-in menu.

Brand History

The origin of the Sonic concept dates back to the early 1950s, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Those days, Troy Smith, who was a World War II veteran, was running a small restaurant with only four booths and 12 counter seats called Cottage Café. This was not profitable enough to support his entire family. So, he decided to sell the diner and invest the money in a larger restaurant, named Troy’s Panful of Chicken. He didn’t have success in opening more locations and had to close the restaurant in 1953.

Anyway, Smith didn’t give up on his dreams and in the same year, in 1953, bought a five-acre property on the edge of Shawnee. On that property, a root beer stand called “Top Hat” and a log cabin were built. In the beginning, Smith thought about tearing down the root beer stand in order to make more parking spaces and to operate a steakhouse in the log cabin. But, in the meantime, he was selling hamburgers and hot dogs at the root beer stand and it was very profitable.

The Shawnee location was the only Top Hat restaurant until 1956 when Smith met Charles Pappe, the manager of a Safeway supermarket from Oklahoma. These two became business partners and started to operate their restaurants under the slogan “Service at the Speed of Sound”. By the end of 1958, two more Top Hat restaurants were opened in Oklahoma.

In 1959 the name of the restaurant was changed to Sonic as Pappe and Smith discovered that the name Top Hat had already been copyrighted. In the same period, they started to franchise their business. By the year 1972, you could already eat at one of the 165 Sonic Drive-In locations.

In June 2011, the first Sonic Beach location was opened in Homestead, Florida.

As of today, the company is owned by Inspire Brands and has more than 3,550 locations in 46 U.S. states.

You might also like our articles about the costs of items on the menus of Nusr-Et, Bubba’s 33, or Culver’s.

Our review

Sonic Drive-In menu includes fast-food staples such as cheeseburgers, chili and corn dogs, hamburgers, breakfast toaster sandwiches. As for the sides you can choose between onion rings and French fries, while the drinks include soft drinks, milkshakes, and slushes. If you feel like eating something sweet, their desserts include sundaes and banana splits.

Clients are offered the possibility to mix different types of drinks and flavors in order to make an infinite number of drink combinations.

Sonic Drive-In restaurants prepare their own onion rings by hand in their own kitchens. The majority of the restaurants have employees hired specially to slice onions, batter, and fry them. These tasty products have a crunchy cornmeal coating and a distinctive sweet flavor. The secret of this sweetness is vanilla ice cream. The onions are dipped into a liquid vanilla soft serve mix, instead of the traditional egg mix. It may sound strange, but their onion rings are really tasty.

The company is well known for its uses of carhops on roller skates and this inspired them to host a competition each year in order to find out who is the best skating carhop in their system.

Sonic Drive-In FAQs

What are the opening hours of the Sonic Drive-In?

In general, the Sonic Drive-In restaurants are open from 9 a.m. until 12 a.m., but it all depends on the location. Make sure you check this information on their official website beforehand.

What is the real cream at Sonic Drive-In?

Sonic Drive-In restaurants started to serve real ice cream at all their locations. This new product replaces the soft serve in all their ice cream treats, sundaes, and shakes, and contains more butterfat and milk.

What is Pink Lady at Sonic Drive-in?

This is a pink color drink that contains vanilla cream, cherry juice, and Sprite.

Should you tip at Sonic?

Carhops at Sonic do not expect people to tip them, but they will be very happy to receive a tip and will always appreciate this gesture.

How can I order from Sonic without a car?

You can just walk in, or at least sit outside. There are locations with picnic tables outside where you can sit and order food.

Can I go inside of Sonic Drive-In?

The new Sonic brand has an inside eating area.

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Alec Pow

CEO at ThePricer Media

Alec Pow is a thorough and methodical Financial and Business Analyst with over 15 years of experience in financial statement analysis, Foreign exchange derivative hedging instruments analysis, modeling, and risk management, with a long history of writing for big news publications like Forbes, MSN.com, Washington Post, and many more.

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