Food is McDonald's quality. The only reason why you should come here are for the drinks and the experience of getting your food delivered by servers wearing roller skates. When I ordered the strawberry limeade, I expected fresh squeezed lime blended with strawberries made into an all natural drink. But no, to my surprise, it was comprised of this weird lime soda and whoknowswhattheotheringredientwas drink. False advertisement!!! The only Sonic in San Diego is located in what seems like an unsafe area. There is a women's correctional facility down the street. read more

Went to sonic on my lunch break, ordered 2 double cheeseburgers... Waited 20 minutes, no food came so I (Being very upset) f_ckin drove off. I love the sonic in Missouri great service, ok food...at least the damn food gets to your car. Never again in santee. I should have known when the girl did not repeat my order back to me, ask If I wanted a drink, Nothing.. P.S. Sonic change the manager of the Santee store, and let it be known or I will never come back and I will also notify my friends and family of your lack of management and service. read more

I didn't like this place 20 years ago when they had a location in South Bay, so I don't know why I thought it'd be any different today. The concept is kinda cool, but the food sucks. My family and I ordered a whole bunch of different items, and none of them were good. The burger made me gag - in a bad way. The Chili Cheese Tater Tots were decent, but I can make that crap at home. I won't be back, and I don't recommend making a special trip here. read more

Unfortunately I have to update this based on last night. I ordered three items. One was an ice cream, one a drink, and one grill item. We waited forty minutes for those three items. No, they were not crazy busy. As a matter of fact, the three cars in the drive thru were gone within the first five minutes. The car next to us was having the same issue. They were still waiting when we finally received our items and left. Here's what went down. Placed our order at 7:50. I know this because we had just finished work and I sent a text when we pulled into the stall asking what my kids wanted. At 8:10 we hear the car next to us inquire when they might receive their food. At 8:15 we made our first inquiry. The woman had zero clue what we had ordered or where the order might possibly be for a few minutes and then exclaimed "oh, duh...it's sitting right here." Mind you, one was ice cream and one was a drink. We inquired if the ice cream had melted in the time it's just been sitting there and she hesitated before saying no, but she'd remake it. Our three items arrived at 8:35. She was the only person to even attempt an apology and I felt awful that she was the one having to face the customers frustration. We received no explanation as to why it took forty minutes. I emailed the manager as soon as we arrived home. As of the writing of this review; I've heard nothing. You disappointed me last night, Sonic and your refusal to acknowledge the mistakes brought me here. read more

Took my girl here for breakfast this morning before a day at santee lakes. After seeing commercials for years we couldn't wait to to try it out. The guy who "took" our order had to been playing some kinda of joke on us, i had to repeat myself like 5 times. Then after all that the order was wrong. My lady friend tried to explain the mistake to the bellhop & she started arguing with my girl. while were waiting for new drinks we open our toaster sandwiches and there's no way this bread has been in any kind of toaster. its soggy, cold. the breakfast sandwiches were horrible. When the manager,i think, comes out with new drinks and tries to find out what happened, my girl mentions how these sandwiches suck and the manager says "yeah, i like the crosonics sandwiches myself" lol she comes back a few minutes later with a coupon for two free drink,which expires in 9 days!! Needless to say i wont be going back. read more

Sonic is the best! I don't eat burgers, hot dogs, or any meat at all for that matter but they have grilled cheese and tater tots! TATER TOTS! Me and tots go way back. The onion rings at Sonic are way too sweet in my opinion, but they're not so bad with the marinara sauce that you can get as a side. If you're thirsty, look no further. They have soda, shakes, slushies, you name it. The variety can be a little overwhelming, but that's part of the fun. Watching people teeter around perilously on skates serving up your food is the other part of the fun. Sonic is pretty much where it's at for all of your fast-foodery needs. read more

After YEARS of seeing their commercials on tv with no Sonic in sight... wondering whether or not this place actually existed or not, I finally tried it... and MEHHHHH is all I have to say. Reminds me of cafeteria food actually. I ordered the chili cheese tater tots, a banana split and a limeade. The tots weren't anything special and the banana split came out about 50% melted. Big fan of the limeades but that's pretty much it. Nothing worth waiting in a long line for. The only cool thing about this place is that you can order from your parked car. If you're eating and forget to order something or your food just wasn't enough, I guess that's convenient. Another reason for the lazy people not to get up. Don't think i'd drive all that way for just those limeades... although they would taste great with vodka or rum....hmmm read more

If I could give 0 stars I would. I can get a banana split for $7 at Handel's. Here, I buy a Large cup of ice cream with 5 m&m's on top for $8. Not coming back read more

What's the allure??? I got the cheeseburger - it tasted like it had been sitting in that aluminum bag wrapper for hours. Even the bun was hard. My daughter got the chicken wrap. Four of us tried it, and none of us liked it. When I posted about my trip here on FB, friends told me I ordered the wrong items... I'm sorry, but if there are only a few secret items that taste good, then it's not worth my time. I'm told to go back for dessert only, but I think I'll just continue to drive on past Sonic in the future. What a dud! read more

Okay so i like everyone else was pissed off when I would see their commercials and had to drive to Anaheim to ease my craving for an Extra Long Coney Dogg and and Ocean Water. So Needless to say I was syked to know that we finally have a Sonic here. After proceeding to the "Staging" area my wait was a little over an hour on a Thursday night at 8:54 we got our food at 10:05. Yikes a long wait for the drivethru I know. Was it worth it ?I would have to say Yes...if you are going to go eat there we took our food home (La Mesa) not too far away but food was already cold. Cold Tater tots YUCK.. But not Sonic's fault. The girl at the window was really friendly which I found amazing since there was soo many people even the peopleworking inside were happy and smiling. The girl even asked if I had wanted any sauces I said just ketchup and she said they had a special fry sauce and she would throw some in for us to try.. That was basicly ketchup and mayo not my taste but it was nice to have the option and try it out.. So having had Sonic in AZ and In Anaheim it is super good fresh and hot.... My Gosh try the Ocean Water it is coconutty Goodness and the Cherry Limeades are always refreshing! Ohh and the Icecream there is tasty esp. the Blasts with reeses pb cups they are not stingy with the toppings. Every bite had some. All in all we will be back when the crowd is not so thick and order from a chick on skates!! read more

Sonic has tempted me for years with all of their commercials. So, when they finally came to town I couldn't wait to have some of those milkshakes, sundaes, and hot dog creations. Well, I'm sorry to say that Sonic has been a big disappointment. I've tried their food 3 times now, just to make sure that I'm sure that I don't like it The first time we came to Sonic was the Kearny Mesa location. We got dinner for 5. 3 kids and a mom and dad. The food was bland and just plain bad. The next time we came... It was just for dessert. Again, bland! How can anyone ruin dessert? I am very sorry to say this about you, Sonic... The service is always good, though! The young people that work at Sonic were awesome! They did thier best! The resturants were clean, the selection was great, and the prices are good. But, the food just doesnt deliver. read more

They managed to mess up my order during the end of someone's shift, but the last working guy skated over finally apologized for the extreme long wait very politely and made it up by giving the order for free. Definitely not his fault, but the fault of whoever planned him in as being the only one until closing (at leas that was the blame). As far as customer service, perfect with solutions. But let it be convenient! Their strawberry cheesecake shake was suprisingly very good!! read more

I was kind of just..whelmed by this place. It was neither good nor bad..just medicore. I've never been to Santee...ever. One night after work downtown, my coworkers and I wanted to grab some dinner and wanted to try something new. None of us have ever tried Sonic, but decided to give it a whirl. Since we're never been there, I had to mapquest on my phone bitching and moaning the whole whole way not wanting to drive way out in b.f.e for a burger (I didn't know that Santee was kinda close-ish to Mission Valley..whatever sue me). So we get there around 10:30pm on a Wed night and the place is PACKED with cars..and I mean a line of about 30-40 cars. We improvised and created our own spot in the dirt road behind the line hoping that you could just walk up to a window and order. Fortunately we could...after about 10 minutes of trying to figure out where/how to order. We all went with burgers and fries. I got a ice cream soda and my friend got something called a creampie..I told him that no good results could possibly come from a name like that. I was right. It tasted like pina colada sunscreen...and chunky. The burger was good...kinda greasy but good..nothing special. I would have been pissed to wait about 2 hours for it. Thankfully we only waited about 5 minutes in addition to the 10 minutes of our bad sense of surroundings and direction. Anyways...Sonic has a cool concept to drive up to a window and have your food delivered to you by a waiter on roller skates but it just takes too damn long. If you don't wanna wait you can do what we did and walk over or be smart about it and go to In-N-Out instead. read more

I was first introduced to Sonics a couple years ago when I went to visit my mom's new place out in AZ. At first I was like "Meh, ok so it's gonna be just an American fast food joint, right?" And then I saw the menu: Cherry limeade?! Burgers on Toaster bread??! TOTS WITH CHEESE?!?!? *THUD* So, after I regained consciousness, I was all about trying the infamous Sonics. And it was deliciousness in my mouth. Nothing mind-blowing, and nothing brand spanking new. But it was deliciousness. Fast forward a year or so and I hear rumors of a Sonic being built in San Diego. And I got all giddy inside. Then I heard it was going to be built in Santee. And then I died a little bit inside. BUT I still maintained some excitement because the Sonic I know of in AZ, is yummy, fast-foody goodness. This sonic is just OK. Not the worst (I'm looking at you Burger King) but not the best. I do give them props for actually rollerblading the food items out to your ride. And their drinks (which is what most people know them for) are good. And I appreciate the randomness of selling fresh bananas (gotta make sure the mini me hits her daily fruit intake.) But I don't drive out of my way to go here. If I'm in the hood I MAY stop by. But that's about it. And I think they could have chosen a better location than this one for a Sonics. But I wasn't on that project team so, it is what it is. read more

Well I love Sonic no matter - but geeze the last time I visited this Sonic and the guy taking our order, were a bit off. I asked for a cheeseburger with only ketchup onion and tomatoes and got exactly the opposite (I.e., I ended up with a cheeseburger with mustard and mayo). This was after repeating my order and him clarifying that I wanted the cheeseburger withOUT mustard or mayo. They also wouldn't let us split the check or do two separate orders. :( Finally, they were out of lemonade. And I drove 25 min for this. Oh well, it was still delicious. To summarize: it was THE worst AND I'll be back next weekend. read more

We give in to the kids every once in a while and regret it every time! It always makes us sick. Even the kids regret it. Everything is processed to the max and fried. Our oldest worked here a bit and the things he told us about the food turns my stomach. The things I know about the staff concerns me. read more

Called to ask about hiring and to possibly apply and got hung up on, that says it all right there folks‍

Kitschy and fun, Sonic is a great place to go when the weather is warm and the sun is out. Just the fact that you can sit in your car, push a button, and then a roller-skating teen will bring food to your car is enough to sell me on this place. Need more ketchup? Just pust the button? Want another menu item? Push the button. Wanna put grandma out of her misery? Push the...wait, no. Wrong review. Ok, back to Sonic. I absolutely loved some things, and I loathed another. Let's start with the good. Peanut Butter Bacon milkshake - phenomenal. Cherry Cheesecake milkshake - super good. Sonic's milkshakes are unique in the fact that they add funky textures to them. The PBandB shake was a smoothe, thick, rich shake with tiny crunchy bits of bacon in every labored suck. How the bacon is still as crunchy as glass after being in a milkshake for 30 mins. is a mystery to me. It's something I'm probably better off not knowing too much about - kinda like magic and oral cancer (WTF? Michael Douglas?) Ok, on to the hatred. The first thing that caught my eye on the menu was Signature Limeade. Cool. I love penmanship AND I love limes. This is gonna be great. So, I went ahead and ordered a cherry limeade. After the kid on wheels skated away I was all ready to kick back and enjoy my signature limeade. The second I felt carbonation I knew something was wrong. Hold up! I got the wrong drink. They made a mistake. I pushed the button and told the guy. "Uh, no man. It's just Sprite," was the reply I got from Speaker-Voice inside the shop. It's just Sprite??? This has to be the most dishonest advertising ever. Signature implies unique. Limeade implies an actual fruit. No dice. How you like them apples. Sonic is totally a mixed bag. Entertaining and the kids love it. Tater tots are bomb. Burgers - not so much. Apps and milkshakes are the way to go. Like the fact they have many different flavors of soda. I just wish they had the juevos to actually call it soda. read more

This place is the best place to go get some milkshakes and slushees . They are amazingly good but the food not so good. It's just dry, I wouldn't want dry fries...would you ? The milkshakes are so good especially the slushees. I get the chocolate milkshake and blue coconut slushy. I know it's original but they are so good. You got to go and tried one of there's milkshakes and slushees. If you don't want to tried the ones I suggested. They have so many options. read more

Waited over 20 minutes for milkshake. Not even crowded to take this long. No reason why it took so long

Literally the worst Sonic I've ever been to. Order the double cheeseburger get a single. Order to add cheese and get no cheese. Ask for condiments and don't get any. Their sundaes and shakes are melted. The onion rings tasted like they were dipped in sugar. read more

I have been to Sonic several times and was never disappointed. I love the tots, they are always hot and crunchy and the jr. delux burger is good for only a buck. If I want to spend a little more, I like the bacon cheeseburger toaster or chicken toaster. The bacon is good and crispy, not a floppy wet noodle like other places. For desserts, I tried the snickers blast that was pretty good, but the jr. candy sundae was nothing more than a little soft serve with some butterfinger dust (McDonalds has a better $1 sundae if thats what you're after). I've tried a different drink every time and so far the only one I have not really liked was the apple limeaid - not much apple flavor. My favorite was the mango cool breeze made with mango, pineapple, cherry and sprite - very fruity. Happy hour is a great time to go because the drinks are 1/2 off. The service has always been friendly, but sometimes they forget to give you napkins and straws, so always check before the car hop leaves and they don't always put mustard and ketchup on the burgers, so don't forget to ask. They do give you free mints, which is cool. I could use one after the onion rings. read more

I appreciate them being open through the pandemic. Suuuuuuper slow, $7 for a brownie batter shake (Hello Pulp Fiction!!), got the order wrong and you are out of chicken sandwiches at 11:30 am. Maybe close up during the pandemic. read more

BEWARE! There is a tall skinny twerp at the drive-thru window that will try to keep your credit card without you noticing. Most credit card fraud happens from the food/drink industry and this is exactly how. ONLY USE CASH AT THIS PLACE unless you want to risk it. (It's funny because after I called him out on it, I saw him run out to his car right after, probably to stash the other cards he's collected since I spooked him). Either way, I won't be returning anyways as the food was piss poor quality, but it makes sense since they only hire kids fresh out of high school that know nothing about anything. P.S. Don't bother looking for your receipt, because you'll NEVER receive one from this place. Also a MAJOR RED FLAG. read more

Nothing to write home about. But, then again, I rarely find myself writing emails to mom and dad about fast food restaurants... I had a bacon cheeseburger and fries. The burger was pretty good. Typical fast food style beef topped with a thick slice of American cheese. The BBQ sauce was a bit on the bland side... it tasted more like lightly spiced ketchup. The veggies were sub-par. The chopped lettuce was nearly all white pieces. The onion ring tasted sweet, like they put sugar in the batter -- it's not bad, just different. Surprisingly, if you add up all of the mediocre ingredients listed above, you get a burger that's actually not that bad. If I'm going to eat fast food, my number one choice is Jack in the Box, so I find myself comparing all fast food to them. Where they have all other fast food spots beat is in the drinks. The strawberry slush was great! In the summer, I plan on getting a large and dropping a couple shots of rum inside. I wouldn't brag to my parents about it, nor would I make the drive out to Santee solely for Sonic. That being said, it's a decent place to try if you're in the area. read more

Went thru the drive-thru after waiting a VERY LONG time in their "staging area", the order was incorrect and the employee did not offer to fix it. I called the number I found for the store on Google, and Imagine this... A voice recorder! I left a message, and explained my bad experience. It has been 48 hours since my call. WE WONT VISIT AGAIN! read more

Just got home with my food and none of it is what I ordered! So aggravating after waiting forever for someone to ask me for my order at the drive thru window. read more

Pathetic service. After two previous disasters that I had written off to a) they had just opened and were overwhelmed and b) a machine had broken down (although they could have told me when I ordered not when I got to the window). I was talked into trying Sonic again for a quick dinner while running errands in Santee. HUGE mistake!!!! Again their service SUCKED. The girl first confused frozen lemonade with regular lemonade, a mistake I was willing to live with but after telling me that the food did not come with onions after I stated twice "no onions". Low and behold we get home with $26 in food smothered in white onions (indelible in our household's opinion). Can't even give to the dog as onions are not good for canines. I call the "management " and am told I could drive back (20 minutes) to get the food replaced or give them my name and I could go back another time for a discount. Do you REALLY think a dissatisfied customer would drive and try you again? They obviously know most won't thus there is no incentive to actually perform accurately Do yourself a favor and avoid this Sonic. It does not live up to the standards of the chain and will do its best to cheat the public. read more

This is writen the morning after I went. I went there on a late Saturday night (about 10:20) When I got there I was expecting a line. From the reviews and even a news article I was prepared for 30 minutes. Well the line was not that long. I must of hit a low point cause the car line was only 15 minutes. (I was timing to whole experience) Now was time to figure out if I would park or drive thru, I went with park. This was such an interesting experience. I loved the menu and I took my time thinking on just "What did I want?" I figured it out and pushed the big red button (oh and its so good they had instructions for their ordering process). The light flashed for 6 minutes before it was answered, but the way that it was answered still kept the good times going, very nice and courteous. So I ordered: The Extra Long Conny (this would be a hot dog) (#3) Chili Cheese Tots Popcorn Chicken Cranberry Limeaid. Came out to $12 (In my mind might be a tad higher since take into consideration Jack n the Box but price wise more on par with Burger King) After the ordering I realized "Hey I can pay here". They have a card reader for each spot so that was cool (I had planned to pay cash on my first run). My food was ordered and payed for now the next wait. It took 23 minutes. I kept myself entertained by talking to the car next to me who seemed to be having an issue just getting their order in, listening to the classic rock being pumped out by speakers placed all over the place, and playing on my phone. When my food arrived I was definitely hungry. The waitress was very pleasant and of all things I was focused on this was the first time I had seen a car door holding tray. Now to speak briefly on the food waiting time when she came she did inform me very politely that my food had gotten mixed up with someone else's order so they had to go find mine again. I was perfectly fine I was expecting a wait so how ever log it took that what it would be. I had to request the type of sauce for my Chicken so she had to go get those. While still there I had to pop 2 tots and they were so yummy. They were warm not hot. She was back in 1 minute with sauce and that was my cue to get back home. Now on to food quality. The tots were like I said before yummy. They were still warm by the time I got home and crunchy not soggy. The cheese and chili were good as well. The Conny was well WoW this was a long dog. I think it was a tad under a foot long, 9 inches. Delicious. Again this was on the warm side oh and the bun was perfect just soft enough not dry. I had some of the pop-corn chicken and this was still warm as well. They were a tad on the salty side but my sauce fixed that up. Oh now the Cranberry Limeaid...Yummmy. One thing that did hit me is this they did deliver in a Styrofoam cup. Now this is the only place I know that would give you a drink in this type of cup. To be honest I thought that places couldn't do that for the fact of ocean pollution but then again this is a chain from the internal US so that would not go into marketing. Maybe the cups will change I don't know it was just an interesting thing I noticed. So 45 minutes and the end result a pretty satisfying meal. When the line dies down I will definitely be hitting it up on a regular basis for happy hour. You better believe with all the business that there isn't already plans to open up a few more of theses babies around town. read more

Finally, an actual location in San Diego. This is like when "In & Out Burger" came here from Los Angeles in the 1980's. Where are Hardee's, Roy Rogers, & White Castle. read more

Wow this place disappoints again! I should've listened to my gut and went to pick it up but instead ordered it on Postmates. BIG MISTAKE! The entire order was made wrong! SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR CERTAIN ITEMS TO NOT BE ON THE BURGER AND DID THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE! I don't understand how hard is it to follow simple instructions! Wrong burger toppings, wrong size fries, cold, soggy buns. read more

For some reason when you come here at night it always takes them over 30 minutes just to bring a drink over. And if you say something about it they don't even apologize or acknowledge the fact that you're an unhappy customer. They don't care. Even if there are no other cars this location takes way too long just to make a couple drinks. This is ridiculous. I'm here right now it's 1016pm and I orders at 945. There are only 3 other cars in the stalls. read more

Cecilia and Destiny were just the sweetest! Fast and such good service. The food is, well, Sonic, but they were so amazing, I had to leave a great review. Love this location! read more

a bunch of teens who dont know how to make a order, and then complain about their wages we were waiting in line for more than a hour because the teen kepts saying one secon please while no one was even in line. read more

Thomas had the displayed customer service and made our late night trip feel like we were his first customer! Such a breath of fresh air!! The ranch was trash. Tots are heavenly! read more

YAY!!! SONICS!!! No more driving 90 mins to Anaheim to get my Sonics fix. PROS: ITS SONIC!!!, the modern day Mel's Drive-in!!! Ever since I was a lil boy playing with hot wheels, I've wanted to cruise up in a cooool car to a drive-in and have a girl on skates deliver my food. Have you not watched American Graffiti??? Anyway, its like a mix between Rally's and Dairy Queen. They Serve Breakfast all day, great menu, great Cherry Limeades, and Ice Cream. AWESOME!!! Why are people leaving 1 star reviews when they didn't even wait the 30mins and try the food and service. Similar to Rally's but not all greasy. Don't forget to try the Frito's chili cheese burrito $1 read more

Sonic Drive-In is overly hyped because there are only a few of them in California, especially here in SoCal. Everyone should know that the food is mediocre and that the only thing that's really good are their drinks (shakes, malts, etc) Honestly! For this specific Drive-In, don't waste your time driving out here because you will have to wait in a very long line, as if you are trying to enter a parking lot to see a football game at Qualcom. Maybe it's fairly new and that's why so I suggest waiting till next year when all the hype calms down to go. Another thing, make sure you come at before 11:30PM. I think this is the only Sonics that is not open 24 hours as advertised on television. In addition, know that they stop allowing cars at the Drive-In at 11 so that means you must park across the street, in the dark and walk to order--which I think is lame because it defeats the whole purpose of the Drive-In. If you come 15 mins. before closing make sure you ask them if they are still serving people or if they are backed up because when my roommate and I decided to go there 15 mins. before they closed, they refused to give us service because they were backed up in order due to an abundant of high-school boppers wanting to try the new cool thing in town. I think it is the new late-night hang out for those kids. So if you are not a bopper, spare your time and go else where! read more

For now the first San Diego Sonic is more of an attraction than a fast-food joint, so expect a 10-15 minute wait to even get in. If you drove all the way from PB just to go there, expect 50 other people are doing the same thing. Just chill and wait your turn. Once you're waved in, the food menu is basic. I like the California Burger with Thousand Island dressing. Hubby enjoys the Toaster Cheeseburger. The onion rings were hot and fresh, but too heavy on the batter for my taste. I like the tots, but they are just tots. The drinks are the real stars here. The cherry Cokes always have a good balance, and the limeade has a nice tang and real limes. Hubby always goes for a slush bigger than his bladder. Overall, it's more of an experience than a meal, so come for what it is. Oh, and tip your carhop a buck or two. read more

One of the worst 'dining' experiences I've ever had! I had the 'privilege' of dealing with the lack of customer care that is their walk-up order system, then I got to wait 20-25 minutes for them to bring out the wrong order! It was OK though since I was at home before I noticed the error...d;^) To top it off the 'food' was stone cold AND tasted evil...d;^( read more

I am not usually one to complain, but my husband and I visited this Sonic on 02/02/2018 at about 3:45 pm and ordered a strawberry cheesecake milkshake and ice cream slush. We waited nearly 45 minutes for our order to come out and went home. When we got home I realized that not only was my milkshake totally melted as though it had been left sitting for a while, it was also a strawberry banana milkshake. I ate it anyways because we didn't want to go back to the store. As I was eating the milkshake there was a huge chunk at the bottom and I pulled it out and there was an entire half of a banana as well as huge chunks of strawberries at the bottom like it hadn't been blended at all. read more

Sonic Drive-In - Burgers Near Me - Santee, California