Dear Sonic:
Guys, you need to figure out what goes on at your Atlantic/Millbrook Raleigh location. Seriously.
Last Sunday night we all packed into the car, ready for some cold yummy treats after a great warm weather day. We drove all the way to Sonic because we figured they’d have the best selection for the four of us.
After debating over the menu, we buzzed to place our order. I really REALLY wanted a hot fudge banana sundae. I could almost taste the fresh banana under the ice cold vanilla ice cream and the warm, gooey fudge melting on top. MMM!
But what’s this? You are out of bananas??? Okay, that’s pretty irritating and annoying, especially since I drove all the way over here – out of my way – and past several of your competitors to get exactly what I wanted. I found it in myself to have grace for the situation. After all, I’m sure lots of other Raleigh families had done the same thing earlier in the day. I settled for a plain old hot fudge sundae. Everyone else got their desserts with no problem and we enjoyed the large servings.
Last night, after another very warm day, we decided ice cream was again on the menu. Still craving a banana split from Sonic, we headed on over. We drove around the building only to have to wait while an incredibly S L O W employee took her sweet time to cross the street (after parking her car helter-skelter) while texting on her phone. Hello? Could you hurry up a little? Maybe look UP to see you are holding up some very dessert-hungry people!?
We parked and jumped out of the car and walked up to the menu/ordering station.
What’s that you say? You are out of FUDGE??? Seriously? What kind of restaurant/drive-thru that serves lots of ice cream products runs out of HOT FUDGE!?!?!? Grr. Well pooh. We were all so annoyed we told the people never mind and left.
We went to another ice-cream serving chain but they must have been Sonic-rejects too because there were probably 15 families ahead of us and there was no way we were waiting upwards of 30 minutes for our cold treat. We finally ended up enjoying ourselves at another chain restaurant, a good old hot-fudge sundae just off the dollar menu.
Tonight we wanted to give Sonic one last go. What can I say? I figured third time would be the charm.
No.
First of all, whoever took our order had marbles, cotton or marshmallows stuffed in his mouth. He informed me that they “nowh longwrh shelld hot fugdgh.” Huh? You don’t sell hot fudge anymore? As in, these 4 or 5 menu items – WITH HOT FUDGE ON THEM – are obsolete? But they are still on the menu? And it was just LAST NIGHT that you were “out” of fudge?
Okay, give me an orange cream slush please.
What’s that you say??? Your slush machine is broken!?!??!
Sonic people, please. I’m not going back to this location. Ever. Never. And tell your manager to get OFF his cell phone and back into the restaurant to order some bananas. And fudge. And fix your stinkin slush machine!!!
Last week for a little fun night out, we went out to eat at the Grand Asia Buffet on Six Forks Road in the Celebration Station area. The restaurant looks pretty big from outside and we’d heard the food was good. We love Chinese food, so what could be better than buffet-style Chinese?
We arrived around 6:00 hoping there wasn’t much of a big dinner rush, and the restaurant wasn’t crowded at all. We were seated quickly and could smell the food coming from the buffet area. We headed over to the buffet line and walked through to see what fare was offered. There were a lot of heated bins with different options to pick from, but the bins weren’t anywhere near full or steaming hot. One entire buffet side was nothing but spring rolls, egg rolls and sushi, which we skipped over. Which ended up being a good thing because there was a man standing there coughing all over the place without covering up his mouth. Bleh.
After picking through the plates to find one that did not have old rice or food stuck to it, I selected the vegetable rice, teriyaki chicken on a stick, and chicken bits that I thought were also teriyaki chicken but wasn’t sure. I grabbed a few crab rangoon (won-ton) and sweet sauce too since these are my favorite!
Other plates were filled with fried chicken, rice, noodles and fruit. Two of us got won-ton soup and the third got egg-drop soup.
We all dug into our food and within a few bites were very disappointed. The rice tasted like it was old and greasy. The teriyaki chicken on the stick was dried out. The other chicken pieces didn’t have much flavor and were tough to chew on. The crab rangoon were soggy and the cream cheese overwhelmed any hint of crab, of which I saw no pieces mixed in at all. We set our plates to the end of the table, still half full. The soup wasn’t any better; the won-ton soup was watery and the egg drop soup was really thick and gelatinous. Very unappetizing.
The fried chicken was good, as was most of the fresh fruit. But the greasy warm noodles weren’t much better than the stale-tasting rice was.
On our second trip up to the buffet we selected pepper steak. This was pretty good but again, not very hot from the serving tray. And, again, we had our plates cleared while still half-full.
We decided to not bother with the food any more and moved on to the dessert buffet line. There were plenty of options to choose from here, but we all picked the self-serve ice-cream machine. That ended up being the best and tastiest part of the whole ordeal.
I was ready to check out and was annoyed that my less-than-desirable meal for three cost a little over $30. Which in the grand scheme of things isn’t that much for a dinner out, but when your food is tasteless, cold and just not good at all, well it makes you wince. I pretty much felt like I paid $30 for three ice-cream cones.
It’s possible that we hit this restaurant on an off night, but I can tell you I will not be making a trip back here any time soon. I get better value and better tasting food from any number of take-out or sit-down Chinese restaurants in the area.