Swensons Drive-In — Restaurant in Union Township

Been meaning to try this place for a while. It's basically an old style drive through where they come to your car. Once I discovered that, I was ready to leave because my mind immediately assumed a Sonic imitation with over priced less than McDonald's quality food.

Instead I discovered the opposite. Friendly staff that runs to your car like their life depended on it, and I do mean that literally. The burger I ordered was good. The onion rings could use some work. Crunchy as fries, which was awesome, but not a lot of flavor. Needs a dipping sauce which they offered at no extra cost and weren't skimpy with it either.

The milk shake was the original milk shake you used to get from McDonald's or White Castle before they changed the cup and added whipped cream on top and thought that was worth charging more money. Simple flavored shake that you could get as fast as a soda that fills that need for a shake for a reasonable cost. Now that may turn a lot of people off, but I miss this style. I live in an area that has United Dairy Farmers. If I want a real milkshake I'll go there and make the time and pay the extra cost.

All things considered, it's a good place. Sadly I don't think this place will last for 1 simple reason, location. I have seriously been interested in trying it since it first opened, but I forget that it's there. Getting in and out of this place is a pain. I always spot this place on my way back from another place I've already stopped at. I'm sure it's too expensive or late at this point, but they should really relocate to the gas station next door/across the street from White Castle at Beechmont and Mt Carmel. This place...

Swenson's has the best onion rings in town. I wanted to get that out of the way first. It's worth the stop for these jewels. Thick, crunchy coating reminds me of Huey's in Memphis, on a smaller scale. Burgers are not terribly tasty, and getting them with "everything" means mustard, pickle, and onion. You can get grilled onions added for a small charge, as well as bacon, cheese or coleslaw, and tomato, lettuce, or Spanish olives. Other sandwiches include a couple different chicken sandwiches, barbecue, BLT, grilled cheese, a Sloppy Joe that claims a recipe from 1934, and others. I want to go back and try the Sloppy Joe, and a side called Potato Teezers, with cheese and jalapeno. We had strawberry and chocolate shakes, which are not as good as where we like to get shakes, but are not bad, and definitely better than the average fast food. They are thick and cold and stay that way a while. They have a variety of flavors including peanut butter, and of all things, grape. Might be adventurous enough to try that someday. They have shrimp and chicken dinners, and a kids menu that should make any kid happy.

You pull up to a parking slot and an attentive server takes your order and brings it to you. You can have it to go or to eat in the car. Mira was our server, and she was very friendly and helped us navigate our first visit. Pull into Swenson's and take home...

Since it's a new place with a new concept the staff were kind enough to show the ropes and explain the process. They helped walk me through the menu (providing a paper copy with details) and ordering what I wanted to eat. But unfortunately things were missing and the fries were underdone making it not so great with experience the 1st time. Since they're brand new they're probably just getting their feet wet so we need to give them more time to get it together. I did find the wait staff attitude really energetic, exciting, and enthusiastic. They were kind enough to work around allergies. I got their Burger which was tasty. It would have been better with the barbecue sauce that I have ordered that didn't come. I had the baloney sandwich which was actually really good but the edges need to be cut off because they're a little sharp after being fried. The fry size was decent but you can only get one size they don't have medium or large or small. Hopefully next time I'm out there I'll try a few things differently and not trust that everything's correct by pulling everything out of the bag and searching...