Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Salinas

My "happy hour" drink turned in to "hazard hour". All DIABETICS: they serve you regular drinks when you order diet drinks. This happens even when you specifically ask for and reiterate (and they confirm) that you ordered diet drinks.

Furthermore, the policy that the manager on duty indicated is that one cannot get in contact with the higher level manager--that one must post on google to have any response. This highlights the many issues they must have if the person who is responsible for dealing with these serious MEDICAL issues is a manager who is not even 18 years old yet. To be clear, the manager I spoke with (Rigo Bonillo) was VERY professional and respectful and it is understandable why he was able to become a manager at a young age. However, he was not able to resolve the issue and the broader policies of Sonic suggest that Sonic doesn't care when these serious medical issues arise. Hence, the problems at this Sonic arise both with high-school students who are either ignorant to or don't care about medical conditions customers may have (peanunt allergies, diabetes, etc.), as well as upper level management policies that make it seem like they avoid customers' very real and legitimate concerns if such upper level management leave a high-school (albeit professional) manager to address medical situations that, in some diabetics, could cause hospitalization (ketoacidosis).

For context: I like the happy hour DIET limeades as you can't get those anywhere else. I ordered two diet limeades during happy hour and I made sure to specifically reiterate that the limeades should be diet. The individual who took my order clearly pressed DIET as that is what showed up on the screen in the car stall and I made sure to ask her to confirm it will be diet. She confirmed they are diet. They clearly weren't. I can't taste the difference anymore between diet and regular sprite, so I have to assume it is diet--which is why I make sure to reiterate that I am asking for a DIET limeade, not a regualr limeade. My blood sugar 20 minutes before I went to Sonic was 135mg/dl. After drinking my supposed diet limeade and checking my blood sugar an hour and a half later, my blood sugar was nearly 400mg/dl. This is after eating nothing and drinking nothing else than these two "diet" limeades. This is a dangerously high and I have friends who have been admitted to the hospital with such blood sugars.

The professional, albeit young manager recognized that this was an issue and analogized it to issues that customers may have with a severe allergy to peanuts. As a result, they have to sanitize the objects that touch peanuts. I was glad to hear this. The problem that DIEBETICS face at this location is that it is that it is incumbent on a clearly lackadaisical high-school student to prepare drinks--the implications of which could be incredibly serious to diabetics.

One could read this post and think "you shouldn't go to Sonic if you are a diabetic. I would agree. However, their diet drinks are unique--which is I why go there at all."

Since the regional management at Sonic does not respond directly to medical issues like this and instead leaves it up to google posts and high-school managers to resolve these issues, I hope readers of this post will recognize the problems with employees who don't care or don't pay attention, and upper level management structures at Sonic that may not be responsible to serious medical issues.

Please be cautious if you order diet drinks like DIET limeades or DIET cherry limeades at Sonic (or other similar diet drinks that are not commonly served at other restaurants).

My "happy hour" drink turned in to...

Used their app to order today to hopefully expedite the process. Well....that didn't happen. I arrived and pulled.into carhop space 4 and pushed the arriving button on my phone and saw my name and a corresponding message that the kitchen was preparing my order. I sat there for 20 minutes and pushed the order button on the cargo screen to be asked if I could wait a moment so he could take care of the drive thru. I sat patiently and then not so patiently pushed the button again and was asked to wait again when I said...I've been waiting 1/2 hour for an order that I placed on line to which he replied that he didn't have the order...So I explained that the screen I was looking at had my name on it and said the kitchen was preparing my order. He then asked me what the order was said he'd bring it out. One minute later he handed me my order, asked me if I wanted any sauces. I said no, took my order and started the car and drove away. Down the road I noticed there were no napkins. Total mistake using the app. Don't get me wrong I've eaten here before with much better results but this time was a nightmare. And to boot the app charges 10-20 cents higher charge per item. What a way to make customers...

I don't normally give out 1 star but this place deserves it. I visited for the first time a few days ago and ordered a blast. After 30 min I pushed the button a second time to ask where the blast was (keep in mind they had maybe 4 cars total) they "did not see my order" yet they were able to tell me the size of the blast I ordered. They apologized and told me it was on the house. Now I gave them the benefit of the doubt and returned tonight. I ordered 2 junior deluxe cheeseburgers with no mustard and a medium fry. After 20 min we got the food and as my friend drove away I looked in the bag. He forgot to ask for no mayo also so we went back and asked to have it switched. They said they would and after watching an entire TV episode at sonic I hit the button again to ask about my order. They apologized, asked what I wanted again and brought it out 5 min later. I checked the bag before leaving and once again had to push the button to ask for ketchup because they didn't put it on the burger. The only thing that didn't go wrong was paying and that's because I used a card in self pay....needless to say I'm not...