Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Dubuque

We are not from Dubuque, IA. We like to visit. We had previously stopped at this location a couple of weeks ago. We were very excited to try it as we had seen the commercials and talked with others about the food. The stall we pulled into had a faulty screen so it wasn't registering we had pushed the button. Which we didn't know. We finally went through the drive thru. We informed the staff of the issue. We got our food and left. As we went on our way we realized they messed up the meal I ordered and never put a toy in our daughter's kids meal. Which at the price was upsetting but mistakes happen. My wife reached out and management was nice and said they'd make it right by replacing my meal and giving my daughter the toy she was shorted when we came again. Fast forward 2 weeks and we're in Dubuque and decide to go to Sonic. Things went better at first, the man taking the order actually comped our entire meal which was really nice. But the joy was short lived as once our food was given to us we were shorted a toy again on our daughter's kids and her milk. We told them on the intercom thing and then my wife realized they forgot her bottled water. So they got it to us and we started down the road and she looked and saw that the bottled water had already been opened and a drink was taken from it. Needless to say we were upset. We stopped at Kwik Trip for water as we didn't want to go back to Sonic at this point and deal with more ineptness from the staff. At this point my wife realizes that they actually messed up her meal and shorted her food and sauce. I mean I understand mistakes happen but two trips in a row and the same results are terrible but especially the bottled water being tampered with is inexcusable. I mean especially in this time of COVID. I get it was probably a staff member that the man bringing the food out accidentally grabbed but still.... Take a moment and get it right. It is for all these reasons I'm giving 2 stars. The saving grace of this establishment is the food is VERY, VERY, DELICIOUS!!! That said it's just not worth the hassle to my...

Was charged prices for food higher than what the menu says. I brought it up to them and showed them that they were charging more than what was listed, but they wouldn't change it.

I figured this must be illegal, but looked it up and it's not! All companies, even fast food, are free to list a price for something and then charge you more than that without notifying you.

I've asked for three Sonic blast ingredients and then double of all that, and the bottom 2 inches of it are still pure vanilla. There is so little of each mix-in included that you would not even be able to guess what's in it, even with 2x the normal amount requested.

Their Chicago Dogs are good.

Twice I've gone and received no napkins.

Inside decor is a strange combo of post-apocalyptic minimalism...but then they add a strange tiny plant centerpiece to the tables as if that fixes everything. Makes me wonder of all other Sonics are just blank decor hellscape but that this franchisee had a soul and did what they could out of pocket. No idea. Sad and gross. Feels like sunbathing under fluorescent light.

Went another day and they said their fryer didn't work. Have you ever heard of a fast food place's fryer not working? Guess how much of their menu involves frying something? Nowhere near as bad as ordering a McFlurry at McD's...but still.

Went another day and a kid was outside standing by the drive thru speaker and said it didn't work, and took my order. This Sonic is the most recent fast food place built in town but you'd think they're using used everything with the rate their stuff fails at.

Idk why I expect more when places like this are always like this. Maybe I should...

This place is now on my list. We have tried the food a few different times and yet to get hot food or speedy service. Normally we just get drinks because the food is never hot but we thought we would try again. Normally when going through drive through it takes 10-15 minutes for just our 3 drinks so we know never to be in a hurry when coming to this Sonic. Because we were getting food we pulled into a stall and hit the button. After 10 minutes of no one saying anything I thought maybe it was broken so I got out and went inside to order. No big deal systems aren't perfect. I went inside and someone took my order right away. 2 meals plus 3 extra drinks. I sit down and start the waiting game. After quite some time passes I get told they are out of lemonade and would need to order something else. I decided to get the same drink as everyone else in my group was drinking and started waiting again. After 30 minutes we had our food and were on are way. Unfortunately after waiting all of that time the fries were cold and wiggly, my sandwich was warm but my bun was soggy, my mom's popcorn chicken was cold and rubbery. After waiting that long I was at least hoping for hot food. Because we were already on are way home we didn't want to go back and honestly I'd be happy never eating at this Sonic again. I do want to point out that when we first pulled in there were 4 cars in drive through and ½ of the stalls were full. When we were leaving they were completely backed up and from sitting and observing it seemed like they were deer in the headlights that didn't...