Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Austin

I don’t come to this Sonic for their food but more-so for the awesome staff!

Starting with the good: I’ve been coming to this location for a few months now. I have 5 other Sonic locations I could hit but I chose this one. Here’s why.. The staff. They are incredibly nice and personable. They work HARD whether you see it or not. Over the past 6 months I’ve seen them slammed and I’ve seen it at times like a ghost town. I get the same great customer service no matter what time of day I come. Sure, it takes a bit longer to get your drinks/food when they are busy but that’s to be expected. If my food came out in a minute with a line of 10 people ahead of me, I’d have reservations and question’s. When it’s not busy I get my order quickly every time.

I’ve come to know the faces of the employees and wish I could drop some names here to give the due credit. They always have a smile, are appreciative, and just good and hardworking people. I absolutely love coming here for the interactions whether it’s for 30 seconds or for 2 minutes. You do not get the standard “Welcome.. it’ll be $x.xx.. bye” you see at other spots. Instead you get a genuine question about how your day is, maybe exchange a joke, and leave with a smile. That’s my experience at least.

I saw the other reviews and I get it.. People have rough days and swing by fast food in hopes it makes life easier and one less meal to worry about cooking. It’s fast food 101. With that said the expectation that you’re going to get a red carpet treatment or that you’re the only one that matters when you see 10 other cars under the roof… it’s not going to happen nor should it in my opinion.

I worked in the food business for 13 years. It’s a grind. You don’t get much praise or appreciation for your work and are expected to move faster than humanly possible. Lastly the pay should be much higher given what these employees have to do and the customers they have to deal with daily. Don’t bomb someone’s work because you had a bad day. If there’s something wrong with your order, tell them. They’ll fix it and make you whole again. If for any reason they don’t, you can escalate it up to the proper channel if you truly want to spend your time doing so. I’m not saying bad experiences won’t happen or they shouldn’t be mentioned. This is more so for those people where I read their review and felt like I was reading a personal diary entry. Kind of like the review I’m writing now! 😎

To the employees at this Sonic: Every single one of you rock! I see your hard work and I appreciate what all of you are doing. Don’t stop doing whatever it is because that’s why I come out of my way to hit this location! 🤘

Much respect. -The...

TERRIBLE JUST TERRIBLE * I sent this today to Sonic. This makes me sad bc I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl but not anymore. Nope. I’m done.

I accidentally ordered two drinks at the Wyldwood location on 4/30/24 at 1630 totaling $6.60. I tried to cancel the order because I was at S Lamar location. I couldn’t locate the cancel button in five minute as this is ridiculous and unrealistic to begin with. I then ordered a Coca Cola 44 oz at S Lamar but couldn’t afford to order the Black Out drink I wanted. When it was time to check in the app told me to press the red button and tell them I needed to pick up both orders. I did this and the employee said, “Order for Jennifer. Ok we’ve got this.” We waited about seven minutes and nobody came out. I hit the red button again and another man asked who the order was for and he said “oh”. We waited longet and a very rude woman came out with the Coca Cola with a long ponytail and red shoes. I told her the app told me to tell them I needed both orders from the other location as well. I mean we are talking about drinks here. It isn’t like I ordered any food at all. She said, “No. not here. I only have one Jennifer” extremely rudely and then walked off. She was awful!!!!! If I. could give her 0 stars I would. I truly can’t believe your employees treat their customers this way. I gave my child 75 dollars in gift cards when he graduated in May in 5 dollar increments as a joke. I no longer will go to any of your locations and I will tell everyone I know about this as well as leaving a poor poor poor review. I’m on a fixed income and it literally cost me $7 for nothing. I can’t imagined how much money you make doing this same thing to people. You have lost a very loyal customer and I hope Sonic goes out of business with your...

I placed my order and a total of $15 and some change showed up on the screen. I reached down to put my card in the outside reader and the price suddenly changed to over $18. I removed my card and pushed the button to ask what happened. I explained twice that the price changed suddenly. I was told someone would come out. A manager came out with a receipt of the order and said the guy taking my order was new and she asked what the problem was. I explained to her that the price on the receipt was about $3 more than what originally showed up on the screen and certainly more than it should've been. I showed the difference in the prices on the screen, now that it had gone back to the menu. I was overcharged about 0.60 for 1 meal and more for the other 2 meals. I pointed to the items and showed her the difference on the receipt. She said ok and went back inside. 10 minutes later a young man comes out, handed me a receipt and said "here's your receipt ma'am." I told him that I had not paid not received food yet... He just walked away with a frustrated look on his face. 10 minutes after that a woman walks out with a tray of food and drinks, looks at the stall just passed us, said "they left," and she turned to walk back inside. I softly honked the horn and she turned around, saying they had the wrong stall number on the order.. But 2 other people had previously came right to us?? We finally got our food, about 25 minutes after ordering and I gave the lady my card to pay for my order. I was still charged 0.40 over for one of the meals. I'm glad we don't live in Austin to have to go back to that Sonic. We were on our way home from a family weekend road trip and it took 30 minutes to get back to the highway... Then the chicken strips were dry and...