Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Scottsdale

We've been coming here for many many years. It was very recently redone on the inside and looks gorgeous, but food quality seems to be going downhill. Had a burger today and the bun was stale and they had run out of pretzel sticks just before the lunch rush, of all things. No more ordering food from the table with a little telephone, so it's lost a little uniqueness as well.

The bathroom is a travesty and has been for years, which makes it all the more surprising that they didn't bother to even touch it after completely redoing the rest of the interior. Neither of the two stalls lock so you want to pick the small one so the door will bang on your knees before anyone accidentally gets a peek 😆But the door practically touches the toilet and lucky you, it opens inward so you get to straddle the toilet after you've flushed just to get out. I don't believe a restaurant should be judged solely on its bathroom. That's just dumb. But I also believe this: if you're going to have a bathroom in your establishment, take as much pride in it as you do every other aspect of your business. A basically functioning bathroom with locking doors is the least people expect. A good bathroom is one you don't even notice in my opinion.

Last note, they won't go out of their way to help you out, i.e. if your $5 order of mozzarella sticks falls all over the floor, they won't help a brother out and replace them. Happened to us and we ended up shelling out $10 for only 8 mozzarella sticks. Again not a requirement by any means, but one of those little extras that makes a place seem extra friendly or unfriendly.

To sum up: Average food, overall average facility, and average employees. Take it or leave it, but knowing how little they care about their restrooms and their customer service in general, I'll sooner leave it. 🤷

Update: They continue to unimpress me as today they asked what sauce I would like with my chicken strips box so I asked for ketchup. I open the box to find... Exactly one packet of ketchup to go with all the chicken strips and tater tots in the box. The generosity of this Sonic continues...

To the store manager Brad and to the shift manager Louise I thank you for your hospitality. On that note I also want to inform you Brad the store manager after speaking to you I was appreciative of your concern for my situation. I was patient I was amicable and I was listening after I got off the phone with Brad the store manager I was talking to Luis trying to get the order in so he could replace the meal and two drinks that was approved by Brad I still had to be repeating what I was saying three almost four times so needless to say I was tired I have been working nonstop for the last 20 days and all honesty all I wanted was to eat something and drink something go home visit before I had to go back out and drive all the way to Texas because that's where my job takes me I still ended up frustrated and yes I did walk out of my own accord but because that's how frustrated I was I do not see myself going to this particular location at all anymore I hope that somebody will pay attention all I've gotten there at your location Brad has been rude customer service having to repeat myself 3 or 4 times which is quite frankly frustrating hopefully in the future you won't have disgrungtled customers anymore and believe me Word of Mouth goes a lot farther than this mundane review both of y'all have a beautiful and great rest of your day as for me this disgruntled customer will no longer be going to your specific location. P.s. Next time please take your headset off while dealing with a customer please Luis. Yes I have worked at sonic even managed a few so too. Hope your mystery shoppers get a better...

The carhop took my cash, bid us “goodnight”, and didn't give me the change. It was less than a buck, but what kind of manners is that? I couldn't even point it out to him or any of the staff, because this Sonic has people pull up and wait in line past the drive-thru window, and the people behind me already had received their orders and were waiting to go. I'm left wondering if that particular guy has noticed this and makes a habit of keeping customer's small change, betting they won't park and come in to complain because it's not worth their time. Rude.

I ordered a lemon pie shake. I got a coconut cream pie shake with lemon wedges in it. I KNOW this isn't how Sonic makes those shakes, because I've been having them all summer. This one tasted bizarre, and I kept choking on lemon seeds. Halfway through, I traded it to my sister for her strawberry shake. There were chunks of fibery stuff in the strawberry shake that didn’t taste like strawberry, so I checked the receipt to see if they didn't add pineapple bits or something... and then I notice I was charged extra to make the shake strawberry. Is that normal? Isn't strawberry a basic shake flavor? That's what it says on the menu, anyway... I mean, what flavor is just "shake" without vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry? According to this receipt, I can just order "shake" next time if I don’t want to get charged extra.

Anyway, I found out what those fibery bits were: rotten brown leaves from the strawberry caps. C’mon man, that’s where the...