The Best Vegan Options at Sonic Drive In

Options for Vegans at your Favorite Fast-Food Restaurant

Sonic Drive-in is a popular fast-food restaurant selling items such as burgers, fries, wraps, and shakes. It is loved by many for its traditional carhops, which are fading out in many drive-in restaurants.

Even though it is well-known for great burgers and fries and the fact that many fast-food chains use animal lard in their cooking oil, there are vegan options at Sonic. 

If you are a vegan and you enjoy fast food you can rest assured that Sonic sells vegan options for you to enjoy when out and about with friends and family.

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Vegetable Burgers

When you think of fast-food restaurants and drive-ins serving vegan and vegetarian food most people will think of vegetable burgers. Sonic does not have a dedicated vegetable burger but you could try to build your own if you wanted to.

This would mean asking for bread and various vegetables so that you can create your version of a vegetable burger. 

Even though Sonic does not sell traditional veggie burgers they do have a good variety of options for vegans on their menu. We take a look at the Sonic menu to give you a rundown of the vegan-friendly options for when you next feel like a meal or a snack. 

It is important to check Sonic’s website for information on allergens and a full rundown of ingredients if you require them.

Vegan Bread

Vegan bread at Sonic include:

• Philly roll
• Bagel
• Ciabatta
• Poppyseed bun
• Tortilla

In addition to the above list, some Texas toast burgers and hotdog buns are vegan but this depends on the branch. As Sonic drive-ins are part of franchise restaurants and their menus vary from place to place.

Sonic indicates that all of the buns should be vegan but when stocks are low or some restaurants run out they may order non-vegan buns. When it comes to the bagels and the Philly rolls you may find that all restaurants do not stock them.

If you would like an item that is not in stock you should speak to the restaurant manager as they may begin to stock if there is demand. 

You may note that the soft pretzel has been omitted from the above list and it is because, while the pretzel itself is suitable for vegans the cheese on top of the pretzel twist is not. If you would like a pretzel twist but want to make it vegan-friendly you can ask for the cheese sauce on top to be replaced with a vegan-friendly marinara or mustard sauce.

You can also add the other vegan-friendly sauces available at Sonic for your pretzel or any other breads.

Contents for bread

While the bread at Sonic is very nice it will likely need to be paired with other items to make it more enjoyable and fill you up. The below items can be added to your bread for a hearty vegan-friendly lunch, dinner, or snack

• Lettuce
• Onion
• Tomato
• Pickles
• Grilled onions
• Peppers (red and green bell peppers)
• Jalapeño 

In certain branches of Sonic, you can also get pickles and relishes or even guacamole or avocado. If you travel to different locations where they have a Sonic drive-in you can ask the waiting staff what vegan options are available to you. 

Condiments

If you feel like making your build your sandwich a little more exciting you can add vegan-friendly condiments including those below:

• Ketchup
• Mustard
• Hickory BBQ
• Asian sweet chili wing sauce

It is important to check the ingredients of the Hickory BBQ sauce as it may contain honey. Some vegans will eat honey but others, indeed the majority, would not eat honey as it it is an animal by-product.

Vegan Sides

• French fries
• Sweet potato tots
• Potato tots
• Onion rings

In fast-food restaurants that do not use animal-based fats to fry their food, you can almost guarantee that the fries and tots are vegan-friendly but the same cannot be said for onion rings.

Generally, the batter contains animal products (milk or milk powder) that die to the batter and animal fats are used for cooking. It is a nice surprise, therefore, that Sonic onion rings are vegan and we think they make a great snack. 

Unfortunately, the French toast sticks are not vegan as they do contain milk.

When it comes to eating fries at Sonic, or in any restaurant, you should ask whether they are cooked in a separate fryer than the meat so that there is no cross-contamination. Some people are not too worried about non-vegan food being cooked in the same fryer as vegan food but for others the separation is essential. 

Vegan-friendly sauce and dips

If you are looking for great vegan-friendly sauces for your sandwiches and sides you can choose from the following vegan sauces at Sonic:

• Ketchup
• Mustard
• Hickory BBQ Sauce
• Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Salsa de Sonic
• Marinara Sauce
• Spicy Mustard
• Strawberry Jam
• Salt/Pepper Blend
• Celery Salt
• Maple Flavored Syrup
• Grape Jelly

Toppings

Whether you want to have salad and or add extra toppings to your Sonic build-your-own sandwich you can choose the below toppings to customize your order.

• Tomato
• Dill Pickle Chips
• Dill Pickle Spears
• Avocado
• Green Chilies
• Sweet Pickle Relish
• Avocado
• Lettuce
• Diced Onion
• Jalapenos
• Sauerkraut
• Sport Peppers
• Sweet chili relish 

If you want to take a packet of sauce or dip Sonic offer the following vegan-friendly condiments packets

• Ketchup
• BBQ Sauce
• Mustard
• Salsa de Sonic
• Marinara
• Strawberry Jam
• Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Sweet Relish
• Grape Jelly

Vegan Snacks

Other mean food products at Sonic that make great snacks are

• Apple slices (without their caramel sauce)
• Apple sauce(either in the packet or in a saucepot)
• Frito’s corn chips

Vegan Drinks

Sonic sells a variety of drinks, slashes, and shakes for diners to choose from but not all of them are vegan. When it comes to shakes, many of them contain milk, such as the cookie shake and the M&M’s shake, which you will need to avoid if you are vegan. 

To ensure that your drink is vegan you should stick to the fruit flavors such as lemon, cherry, blueberry, watermelon, and blackberry which are all vegan-friendly.

The most popular drinks at Sonic are, arguably, the slushes (sometimes referred to as slashes) that come in a range of vegan-friendly flavors. The majority of the slushes sold at Sonic have a lemon or lime base with a selection of fruit flavors added according to the recipe. 

You can choose from the following slush flavors

• Limeade slush
• Lemonade slush
• Plain slush with various syrup options

The slush flavors that you can choose from are:

• Cherry
• Blue raspberry
• Blackberry
• Grape
• Blue coconut
• Mango
• Raspberry
• Diet cherry
• French vanilla
• Peach

You can add several add-ons to your slushes but do check that they are vegan.

In addition to slush drinks, you can order a variety of soft drinks including Coke, diet coke, Dr. Pepper, Fanta, root beer, and iced tea.

If you want a warm vegan drink you can also select from a range of teas and coffees from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which is a reasonably good brand of coffee. You can check with each restaurant whether or not they sell milk alternatives to add to your coffee, such as oat milk or almond milk. 

Summary

While the vegan options in Sonic are limited it is still a good place to visit if you are vegan.

You are not very likely to visit this drive-in if you have a range of high-quality vegan restaurants in the area but if this place is nearby and you are hungry then you are sure to find some suitable options, which is more than you can say for a lot of fast-food chains.

If you are out with friends or family and they want to visit for a burger then you can stack on fries a make your sandwich and enjoy an apple slice for dessert. Caution needs to be taken with anything that is cooked in a fryer, with particular attention needed when it comes to the onion rings.

While men say that onion rings are vegan at Sonic you will need to double-check as the brand is a franchise business so there may be variations between restaurants. 

There is no pressure to order any food at Sonic so if you prefer you could simply buy your vegan food elsewhere and head to the drive-in for one of their famous slushes or a drink to go with the vegan meal of choice. 

For cheap and cheerful vegan snacks Sonic is a good choice but may not offer a substantial meal compared to that on offer for meat-eaters. 

To confirm what the vegan options are and to see all ingredients and allergens you can check the Sonic website for clarification.