Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in New York

The second Sonic in NYC and the first in Queens! The food was tasty and fresh with a clean, modern interior, friendly service, and unique menu items.

First off, the burger. The burger was a solid burger. I got a plain double cheeseburger with only onions. The onions were fresh and the burger tasted fresh too. The bun was an average bun but good quality. It’s a step above McDonald’s but not earth shattering. I would say an above average fast food burger.

I ordered the tater tots with the combo and let me tell you, they. Where. Amazing. Crispy exterior, right amount of salt, and just a unique menu item that I really appreciated as they were so good and really no one else has that.

For comparison, I did order fries also. The fries were meh, kinda average, nothing too special. They could have used a little more salt, but still nothing to write home about. Below average for a fast food place.

I also ordered the mozzarella sticks, another pretty unique menu item. Only White Castle has them too I think. They were delicious and came out hot, crispy on the outside and stretchy on the inside. PERFECT! Above average rating for these!

Also ordered, was the pretzel twist. Another unique menu item to try. Ok, who thought it was a good idea to put that much salt on it. I took a bite just to see and yep, wayyyyyy too much salt. After I took a lot of the salt off and dipped it in the cheese sauce, it was quite a bit better. That being said, it still fell a little flat. Just didn’t have a lot of taste and while the cheese added to the flavor, it wasn’t a fantastic quality of cheese in my opinion. I was hoping for an auntie Ann type. Below average menu item!

Lastly, the cherry slushy! Unique menu item and it tasted great! Bold flavor and the ice really stayed for a while. Top quality slushy! I want to try more flavors! Bonus points for finding a maraschino Cherry at the bottom!...

I had rock bottom expectations coming in at 11pm yet I was still surprised by how bad this was.

charges 40 cents per cup of water chicken sandwich is pictured with tomato and also listed online with tomato, doesn't come with tomato when ordered. When questioned, staff says starting today, the chicken sandwich does not come with tomato so he'll have to charge 30 cents for tomato. Also, chicken was extremely dry but it's not really worth going over since you don't expect a quality chicken sandwich from Sonic chili cheese dog has almost no chili, like someone decided the amount of ketchup you put on a hot dog is the amount of chili on a chili dog. Hot dog is clearly burnt all long the shaft. Not nice burnt, like a grilled hotdog. Bad burnt, on both sides, the whole length oreo shake was just soft serve a couple oreos in soft serve. Not anything like advertised (no choc syrup, whipped cream, cherry) onion ring texture was bad. Some overcooked and some undercooked, somehow. Flavour was also strange, it was sweet but not in the right way service was slow and an absolute mess. Crowd of people at the counter, long delays, the next order screen did not show anything, leaving you to guess if your order would ever come. Employees working the kitchen and register looked generally clueless, like they had never worked at a Sonic before and just got hired a couple hours ago. vibe was bad, a good few angry customers and loud music blasting in the main dining area. Also it was bad music, but that's just my opinion.

I felt like I was in some sort of fever dream, eating probably the worst quality food I've had in years, at midnight, while receiving tinnitus treatment to the tune of arriba and...

It's great, for a Sonic. As long as you know what to expect from Sonic in general, this is a great option. The food is fast and hot, and the drinks give you your money's worth of fruit/flavored add-ins. One of the cashiers suggested getting the mozzarella sticks with ranch sauce, and whoa they were amazing. Changed my life, I don't even bother with the marinara anymore 😂 The place seems clean, although I've admittedly never dined in there. There is also usually pretty good street parking with cheap meters. 1 quarter is usually all I need to run into Sonic, since the good never really takes that long. I also like that you can order ahead on the app, and there are specials/sales like every other week, no app needed. Maybe it's because the place is relatively new, but if you're looking for a Sonic's, this is a pretty good option. I just wished they opened earlier. Our field unit is right across the street, and a lot of our guys start at 5am, so their lunch is around 10am. Sonic is missing A LOT of business from 10am to 11am that the McD next door is picking up. There is no alternative when you get tired of McD, esp since they don't start selling lunch foods until 11am. And Sonic is STILL closed until 11:30. That's bad...