Fast Food Friday – Sonic

Over that last 10 years or so, as I was watching basic cable programming, I would see a commercial for a joint called Sonic?  Why the heck was this burger joint advertising with a national cable buy when they had NO stores in a whole bunch of states?  The answer, they were softening us up!

Michigan got it’s first Sonic just over a year ago in St. Clair Shores and this week, they opened up a new location in the heart of Oakland County.  It, like the first store opening, made the paper and I believe a TV outlet or two.

What’s so special about Sonic?  I think it’s the novelty of the drive-in concept. Some may say it’s their 168,894 drink flavor combinations.  Other may just be big fans of tots (more on that later).  Whatever it is, it has developed a following.

This was my first trip ever to Sonic and probably won’t be my last.

Enough jibber-jabbin’, let’s get down to bacon business. For the “Fast Food Friday” test, we ordered both the bacon cheeseburger AND the BLT.  Let’s start with the BLT…

 

I heard about the BLT on one of those commercials I mentioned earlier.  Hey, if they were specifically selling a BLT, then it was my duty to try it.  But when I pulled up to the signboard…

NO mention of the BLT!!!  WHAT?!?  You just advertised it, where was it…seriously, click on the picture, look at the bigger image and TELL ME if you see it or not…I’ll wait.

So I pressed the call button and asked the question.  I was told they had a breakfast BLT (again, where on the menu), so I ordered that without the egg. Here’s the BLT opened up…

What is this?

Their bacon is layered and cooked in what I’d call an argyle or diamond pattern.  Very Interesting.  I don’t think this can be cooked in a fryer, but would HAVE to sit on a flat grill.  It was thicker than the majority of the pre-cooked stuff at the other places and had a real nice color and texture to it.  The shape really threw me.  I think it was a great way to try to get maximum bacon taste evenly throughout the burger, but this pattern does leave a hole right in the middle of your sandwich or burger.  This wasn’t that big of a problem with the BLT as it had two of these bacon lattices on the sandwich creating a nice, crunchy and tasty layer of complete bacon flavor.

Let’s see that burger…

See what I was talking about?!  Four strips (actually two strips folded into V’s) is a healthy amount on a standard bacon cheeseburger, but massive hole right in the middle of the burger.  When eating the burger (which was just a single patty as opposed to the mostly double cheeseburgers I have been eating) I was slightly disappointed in the amount of overall bacon taste per bite.

In regards to JUST the bacon…it was very good.  Nice crisp, good color and flavor.  The BLT is something that I will order again as it really tasted like a sandwich that I’d make at home with typical store bought bacon.  This should rank right up there as some of the best fast food bacon when all is said and done…we shall see…

A brief aside before we go to The BRS score – I love Tots!!!!  Tater Tots seriously rock and these tots were fantastic!  Heaven for me, seriously.  No ketchup, no mustard, just popped those pure tasty potato delights straight into my mouth!  WHY, WHY don’t other places rock with the Tots???  If there was no other reason to go there, the Tots would clinch the deal every time!

Okay, so here we go…to maintain consistency, I am not judging against the BLT but the bacon cheeseburger…

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Restaurant: Sonic
Menu Item: Regular Bacon Cheeseburger

Appearance: 1 2 3 4 5

Overall Coverage: 1 2 3 4 5

Bacon Per Bite: 1 2 3 4 5

The left end is “not enough” and the right end is “too much”, so a perfect score would be 5

Pork Flavor
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Smoke
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Salt
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Sugar
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Fat
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Texture
too chewy << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too crisp

OVERALL SCORE: 3.44

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For the second week in a row we have a new leader.  Sonic just edged Five Guys 3.44 to 3.33.  The race is starting to heat up.  Results will now be posted, with rankings, along the right hand sidebar.

Next week we’ll be doing a twofer as I revisit Wendy’s to try their new Deluxe Bacon Cheeseburger and we’ll make a trip to Checker.