SONIC I cannot tell you how many times I've been there and had to wait over 15 minutes to get my food, but I can't resist their slushes. Its the only thing bringing me back,
Yeah, I agree with the first two posters. Both Sonic and Whataburger are slow. I dont really care and dont mind waiting, but when I go to Whataburger while I am at work the wait really sucks... I also found Dairy Queen to be slow as well.
I used to work at Whataburger when I was a teen. We were always slow. We called ourselves Wait-a-burger. But the food was always made fresh - we didn't start cooking until the order was placed.
Sonic IS slow but when I lived in Austin, there was this Sonic near my apt (on cameron road) that is faster than most burger fast food chains (i.e. McD's, BK, etc). I got my chickenstrip dinner with one of those fruit slush in about 2-3 minutes after ordering
Whataburger: my A1 Thick and Hearty wit jalapenos was made relatively quickly. Unfortunately, the dumbass behind the counter couldn't give me my food as it sat RIGHT NEXT TO HER on the counter for 20 minutes because "this isn't my normal station."
Once in College Station, on game day, I had to wait so long for my food that I got a little PO'd and had some words with the old man that I think owned the franchise. When my food was finally ready he slammed it down on the counter (smushing the fries), so I picked the bag up and threw it at the menu sign and walked out. Shortly thereafter the College Station police drove up in my drive way to chat (apparently I had commited Assault With A Deadly weapon) I had to pass on that Whatyburger for the next three years even though it was a couple of blocks from the house.
Unfortunately fast food speed, generally implies they are pulling your burger out from under a heat lamp.
Hehe, did they post your mug shot behind the register warning the employees about you? If that would happen to me I would be pretty pissed off too. Its not the customers fault that those employees have crappy jobs and they are trying to take their anger out on someone.
I currently work at Sonic (high school / college job)... slow delivery times are a result of many factors (obviously), but some factors that the "typical" fast food does not have. Such as the physical delivery of an order. A "fast carhop" can take an order out and be back (collect money and deliver food) in in 45 sec (to a stall that is on the farther end). Use what I call the green light principal; it takes a "typical driver" 1-3 seconds to respond to a green light, take that times the amount of cars in front of you, you have a wait. Now with credit cards a car hop delivers food, gets the card, runs the card (most Sonics should now have internet connected instant transer, no dialing in needed), gets the receipt signed, and then comes back in; thus taking a good hop 1+ minute. Apply the aforemention principle. Food cook times. Bigger and busier Sonics (which I imagine Houston has) keep food up in warming drawers, so this may not apply: Hamburgers (all from frozen, a good thing): 3 minutes Chicken Strips: 3:30 minutes Breaded Chicken Breast: 3:30 - 4:00 minutes (depending on thickness) Understaffed. Once again larger Sonics have more crew making this point not applicable, but at smaller Sonics it isn't unsual to have only two employees at any given time of the day (one person hopping another person does everything else, ie: take the order, cook the food, prepare the food, make the drink/ice cream, bag the order, etc) Making everything fresh. Ice cream can take a while for slow/new hops. I can make a good shake in 20 seconds, while a new/sucky hop it takes 1+ minutes. All shakes are blending requiring the times above. Treating any fast food person with disrespect due to slow delivery times, due to something other than blatent stupidity, should never be accpeted. It is the customers' choice to leave (at Sonic money isn't accepted till time of delivery), don't want to wait, don't come, order taking too long, leave. Plain and simple, you know the result for coming and you choose to complain? Some idiots have gone as far as threatening to kill me (called the police with license plate numbers). But my favorite is "everytime I come here...", if we keep on doing something you don' like then, take the hint. In general fast food employees get paid low wages any disrespect is not acceptable. I was going through college full-time and then working 50+ hours a week at the job where I had other things to deal with and would not be treated bad by a customer, nor did any of my employees. The manager has the right to refuse service, just like the customer has the right to refuse business. Another big problem is poor overall management. In some places managers aren't even required to have a high school diploma (my manager doesn't) ... It's not hard being a "good manager", all you have to have is some common sense and a will to "do well" (and a decent staff); don't have that, then stuff happens.
It has to be Whataburger. When they give you a number, that's telling you it's going to be 5 minutes or more to get your food. Like a buddy of mine said, it's a gormet hamburger establishment. Dairy Queen is more of a specialty for ice cream. Sure they serve food, but I hardly every buy anything other than a bannana split or a sunday there. Jack in the Box is just horrible for burgers so I don't order them. The only thing I buy there are the two tacos for a dollar or their $1 chicken sandwich; and I'm pretty much in and out in minutes.
If you want quick fast food, go to McDonald's or Burger King where they can sit there for hours. Personally, I don't mind waiting a couple of minutes extra for the freshness of Whataburger or Sonic. Also, I second the Cameron Rd. Sonic in Austin. Been there many times back in 2000 when I used to live off Camino La Costa.
It's funny how everybody has slow Sonic stories. Ours has been slow lately, especially on busy evenings. I'm pretty patient, but some of my friends aren't. One of them was getting really upset Friday when they never responded after she ordered a drink refill. They were understaffed - seems like the entire town was in there, and if you ever needed proof that there's nothing better to do out here, now you have it - and finally told her it might be a while. She started beating on the table like a little kid while I tried to distract her. (should have found her medication j/k) Another girl is even worse and always manages to find something wrong with her food or the way they cook it and confronts them or yells at them. I wonder how many things she's had spit in. Anyway, it's frustrating but what can you do if they're understaffed... I only get upset if I have somewhere to be, like if I have to eat lunch and get back to work. That's when I start to get irritated. By the way, I know this guy who used to work at the Sonic mentioned above. He told me not to order anything made with fruit because they let the fruit sit out all day and flies land on it. He also told me not to order fries because the employees keep picking fries out for themselves. I assume this only applies to that location, and hopefully not all the time.
Taco Cabana after 9pm. They will take 10 mins to even speak to you at the drive-through and then they usually tell you to hold on, and come back in another 5 mins. Usually happens when there aren't even any customers inside. On the reverse, Chick-fil-a is always fast and the employees are friendly.
Except the employees who are working at the Chick-fil-a at UH main campus (no offense if it is you or someone you know). All the employees that I have seen working there look like they have just been released from prison or something. They also have major attitudes and I have seen them get irrate with customers.
me and my buddy where going through the sonic drive-thru just the other day talking about how sonic is by far the slowest service. i'm not complaining because i continue to go(sonic rocks) but it's definitely time-consuming.
