Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Palatine Township

The food is pretty standard fare for Sonic. Its hot, fresh, and delicious - though I really wish they didnt put onions on EVERYTHING! Like seriously. Some items even have multiple kinds of onions like chopped raw or grilled white onions on the bottom and then sliced red onion on the top. All on one burger! You cant even taste the burger because its just onions everywhere! And if you forget to say "no onions" youre totally scewed cause there is NO way to pick them off. Its a really overwhelming amount of onions. The reason for the 3 stars isnt the onions though. Its for the complete lack of cleanliness. A while back this location turned their patio dining space into an indoor eatery by building glass walls around the small walk-up window in the front. They filled this space with 9 very small tables and chairs that were all made from aluminum. (If you hang your coat on the back of the chair it will tip over). The feather-light budget tables arent the problem though, its the fact that EVERY SINGLE ONE was dirty. Nine tables in a completely empty restaurant (2 cars in the car hop and us made up the entire customer base) and all of them covered in crums, straw wrappers, wet spots, greasy residue etc. We chose the "cleanest" one and wiped it down ourselves. Before we left 2 more groups of ppl came inside to eat. The first, a family with one small child, looked for a table to sit at and decided (much to the childs dismay) that they would have to take their food home because there was no where clean to eat. The second, a young teenage couple, did stay and eat - though they also made remarks about the dirty restaurant and cleaned their own table. My family stayed for dinner and dessert so we were there for well over an hour. Possibly even 2 hours. Not once in the entire time we were there did we ever see an employee come out to the floor to clean or stock condiments etc. The only time we ever layed eyes on someone it was the girl who took our order and we had to ring the buzzer and wait for her. I wish I could say this was an isolated experience but the reason Im writing this review is because its not. This is my third visit to their "indoor" seating area in about 6-7 months and it is ALWAYS like this. Its gross. We dont like to eat in the car so sadly were considering taking Sonic out of the rotation for our family's dine-out nights. Theres A LOT of things I will excuse in a restaurant. Cleanliness is NOT...

On the evening of July 24, my three friends and I went around 10:00 pm to get ice cream. We had all agreed Sonic would be a great treat because they have slushees, shakes, and sundaes. We were greeted with rude, below-average service. We ordered from our car. The driver ordered first. Then, she ordered for the passenger. She wanted a shake. The woman taking our order said they were out of shake mix but could make a blast out of the shake order. My other friend ordered a blast. Then I was going to order ice cream. We were the boy rudely asked “you want another ice cream.” Which took us all aback as we did not expect to be judged for getting ice cream. I had asked if she could do the shake as a blast with the fudge shake. She ended up charging us extra even though they were out of the mix. Finally, the last friend ordered. She asked the woman what was on the hot fudge sundae. She responded “just fudge and ice cream” again, with a rude tone. When she delivered our order everything was correct except for the sundae. The friend who ordered the sundae asked why there was whipped cream and a cherry when she was told it was not on there. The woman then said “I didn’t tell you that was on there, I can’t make a new one because we are actually out of ice cream.” Bottom line, we were treated rudely from the beginning and were disappointed by the service...

I was attended by a girl who claimed to be named Ashely and claims she was a manager but doesn’t seem to fit the standards of being a manager as she was not professional… came in happy trying to order when I was told she can’t do three orders for three different paying customers and I have never been told this at a fast food place… she was extremely rude from the start and has the biggest attitude on her face and through the way she spoke… when I had asked for an explanation as to why she can’t do three orders I was told “I have other customers in line do you want to do the same order or not” if I’m a separate customer why am I not able to place my own order ? And told either do the same order or no order at all makes no sense … she was simply to lazy to place it . I really hope she seeks happiness within because her attitude shows how miserable she is … if you are a fast food “manager” you should expect multiple orders in a night . She simply let the bad day she was having affect her professionalism… terrible customer service. It was extremely unprofessional how she acted and also told me I was unable to pay in cash I don’t understand how you wouldn’t be able to pay cash at a fast food place .. as an adult and a manager you should know how to act...