Pair Your Sonic Slush With These Vegan Menu Items: How to Order Plant-Based at Sonic Drive-In

With more than 3,400 locations across the US, there’s a decent chance that you’ll see a Sonic Drive-In at some point in your life. The fast-food joint hearkens back to the drive-thru era of cheap, but convenient and filling burgers, hot dogs, and chicken tenders. Sonic has all of those—but unfortunately, none of them are vegan. However, if you need a meat-free meal and Sonic is your only option, it does come through with some okay options. Here’s how to eat vegan at Sonic.

Does Sonic Drive-In have vegan options?

As stated above, unfortunately, you can’t have a vegan version of that burgers-and-fries experience at Sonic. And, unlike some other major fast-food chains, it hasn’t even trialed vegan meat options. But, you’re not 100-percent without options, either.

As for cross-contamination, it’s possible that some of the vegan options below were actually cooked in the same deep-fryer as meat options. 

But, unless allergens are involved, a lot of vegans don’t sweat the finer details like that. This is because the option itself isn’t deliberately made with animal-based ingredients. It’s generally accepted that you might encounter cross-contamination at restaurants designed to serve the most people in the shortest amount of time.

Vegan options at Sonic Drive-In

While Sonic’s vegan menu is lacking, at least there are carb-loaded options on the menu. Here’s what’s vegan at Sonic:

Sonic Drive-In

1 French fries

Vegans would be hungrier people without potatoes. Thankfully, Sonic’s Groovy Fries (aka crinkle-cut French fries) are free from all animal derivatives from dairy to beef seasoning. We’re looking at you, McDonald’s. Pair your fries with the next item on the menu, plus ketchup, mustard, or one of the other vegan sauces.

Sonic Drive-In

2 Tater tots

The majority of tater tots are vegan, and we’re grateful that Sonic’s are. These deep-fried potatoes are soft and pillowy. They go great with any sauce, but we love them best with tangy ketchup. Or, sprinkle them with a packet of salsa and something sweet to drink, like a Cherry Slush.

Sonic Drive-In

3Pretzel Twist without butter

Next on Sonic’s vegan menu is: more carbs! The pretzel twist usually contains butter, but you can order it without. It also comes with cheese dipping sauce by default, so replace it with marinara, mustard, or another vegan sauce—more on those below.

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4Create your own sandwich

There are no vegan sandwiches on the menu, but you can order a custom one. But, there’s just one problem: every Sonic location gets its bread from local distributors. So, a hamburger bun that’s vegan at one location may contain dairy at another one. Sonic generally carries the following types of bread:

• Bagels (select locations)
• Hamburger buns (may contain eggs or dairy)
• Hot dog buns (may contain eggs or dairy)
• Soft Pretzel Twists
• Tortillas

You don’t have to eat just bread—you can fill that bread (or tortilla) with vegetables and top it with a sauce, like mustard or hickory BBQ. We love the variety of fresh and pickled vegetables that the menu has to offer. Fill your vegan Sonic sandwich with any of these:

• Diced onions
• Dill pickle chips
• Grilled onions
• Jalapeños
• Lettuce
• Sweet pickle relish
• Tomato

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5 Frito’s corn chips

Frito’s happens to be one of the many accidentally vegan snacks that you can find just about anywhere. We like pairing them with salsa, but you could just as easily crumble them and use them to top your sandwich.

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6 Vegan sauces and condiments

Most of Sonic’s sauces are vegan, so you don’t have to worry about eating your french fries or tater tots unaccompanied—thank goodness. Sonic keeps it classic with the following sauces:

• BBQ
• Ketchup
• Mustard

In addition to sauces, Sonic has several other ways to add a touch more flavor to your fries, tots, pretzel, or sandwich. Opt for the following sauces to keep your order entirely vegan:

• BBQ sauce
• Ketchup
• Marinara
• Pepper
• Salsa de Sonic
• Salt
• Sweet relish

Sonic Drive-In

7Slushes and drinks

If you want a frozen drink with your meal, or if you just want a sweet treat, get a Slush. The Lemonade and Limeade Slushes are completely vegan. Or, you could order a plain slush base and choose from Sonic’s flavored syrup options. All of them are vegan, except for the cheesecake syrup, which contains milk. The flavored syrup options are:

• Blackberry Sugar-Free
• Blood Orange
• Blue Coconut
• Blue Raspberry
• Cherry
• Coconut
• Cranberry
• Diet Cherry Sugar-Free
• Dragon Fruit
• Grape
• Lemon 
• Lime
• Mango Sugar-Free
• Peach Sugar-Free
• Powerade
• Raspberry Sugar-Free
• Strawberry
• Twisted Lime

How could we expect to eat a meal without a drink? Luckily, Sonic has far more vegan drink options than food options. If you don’t want soda or juice, water is also an option. As for the vegan drink options at Sonic, they are:

• Barq’s Root Beer
• Canada Dry Ginger Ale
• Coca-Cola
• Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
• Diet Coke
• Diet Dr. Pepper
• Dr. Pepper
• Fanta Orange
• Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ Hot Coffee
• Hi-C Fruit Punch
• Lemonade
• Minute Maid Apple Juice Box
• Simply Orange Juice
• Powerade
• Sonic Bottled Water
• Sprite
• Sprite Zero
• Sweet Iced Tea
• Unsweet Iced Tea

Sonic’s vegan options are limited, yes, but at least the fast-food chain makes up for it in options that won’t leave you feeling hungry. But, since the likes of meat and cheese-heavy restaurants like Burger King and Johnny Rockets have added plant-based meat to the menu, we expect that Sonic might follow in their footsteps in the very near future.