How to Order Vegan at Sonic (the Tater Tots are Vegan!) 

With more than 3,500 locations in 46 states, there’s a good chance you’ll see a Sonic Drive-In at some point in your life. The fast food joint harks back to the drive-thru era with cheap but convenient and filling burgers, hot dogs, and fries. Sonic has it all – but sadly none of it is vegan. However, if you need a meatless meal and Sonic is your only option, it has some good options. This is how you eat vegan at Sonic.

Does Sonic Drive-In have vegan options?

Unfortunately, as mentioned above, you can’t have a vegan version of this burger-and-fries experience at Sonic. And unlike some other big fast-food chains, it didn’t even test 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 listed below were actually cooked in the same fryer as meat options.

But, unless allergens are involved, many vegans don’t sweat such subtleties. This is because the option itself is not intentionally made with animal ingredients. It is well recognized that cross-contamination can occur in restaurants designed to serve the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time.

10 Vegan Options at Sonic Drive-In

While Sonic’s vegan menu is absent, there are at least high-carb options on the menu. This is vegan at Sonic:

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1 French fries

Vegans would be hungry people without potatoes. Thankfully, Sonic’s fries are free of all animal derivatives, from dairy to beef seasoning. We’re looking at you McDonald’s. Pair your fries with the next dish on the menu, plus ketchup, mustard, or any of the other vegan sauces.

Sonic drive in

2 onion rings

Unless you’re bothered by possible cross-contamination (which would rule out virtually everything else on this list), the onion rings can be considered vegan! Onion rings usually contain eggs, so this is a rarity as far as vegan fast food options go.

Sonic drive in

3 Tater tots

The majority of tater tots are vegan, and we’re thankful that Sonic are. These fried potatoes are soft and pillowy. It goes great with any sauce, but we love it best with spicy ketchup. Or top them with a pack of salsa and something sweet to drink, like a cherry slush.

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4 Pretzel twist without butter

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

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5 Create your own sandwich

There are no vegan sandwiches on the menu, but you can order an individual one. But there’s only one problem: every Sonic location gets its bread from local distributors. For example, a hamburger bun that is vegan in one place may contain dairy in another. Sonic generally carries the following breads:

• Bagels (selected locations)
• Hamburger Bun (may contain eggs or dairy)
• Hot Dog Bun (may contain egg or dairy)
• Hoagie Bun
• Soft pretzel twists
• Texas Toast (may contain eggs or dairy)
• Tortillas (may contain eggs or dairy)

You don’t have to eat just bread — you can stuff this bread (or tortilla) with veggies and top it with a sauce like mustard or hickory barbecue. We love the variety of fresh and pickled vegetables the menu has to offer. Fill your vegan sonic sandwich with any of the following:

• Avocado (select locations)
• Diced Onions
• Dill pickle chips
• Dill pickles (selected locations)
• Grilled Onions
• Hatching Green Chilies (Select Locations)
• jalapenos
• lettuce
• Sauerkraut (selected locations)
• Sport peppers (select locations)
• Sweet cucumber treat
• tomato

Frito lay

6 Frito’s corn chips

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

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7 Vegan sauces and condiments

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

• Hickory grill
• Ketchup
• Mustard

Besides sauces, Sonic offers several other ways to add a touch of flavor to your fries, tots, pretzels or sandwiches. If your Sonic has a vegan bagel, it would make a great accompaniment to grape or strawberry jelly for on-the-go breakfast.

• barbecue sauce
• grape jelly
• Ketchup
• lemon juice
• Marinara
• Mustard
• pepper
• Salsa de Sonic
• Salt
• Strawberry jam
• Sweet and sour sauce
• Sweet treat

Sonic drive in

8th slushes and drinks

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

• Blackberry Sugar Free
• Blue Coconut
• Blue Raspberry
• cherry
• diet cherry
• French vanilla
• grape
• Mango without sugar
• Peach Sugar Free
• Raspberry Sugar Free

How can we expect to eat a meal without drinking anything? Luckily, Sonic has many more vegan drink options than food options. If you don’t want soda or juice, water is also an option. The vegan drink options at Sonic are:

• Barq’s Root Beer
• Canada Dry Ginger Ale
• Coke
• Coca-Cola without sugar
• Diet Coke
• diet dr Pepper
• dr pepper
• Fanta Orange
• Freshly brewed sweet tea
• Freshly brewed unsweetened tea
• Hot coffee from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
• Hi-C fruit punch
• lemonade
• Mello Yello
• Minute Maid apple juice box
• Minute Maid Orange Juice
• Powerade
• Bottled sound wave water
• fuel
• sprite zero
• sundrops

Sonic’s vegan options are limited, yes, but at least the fast-food chain makes up for it with options that won’t leave you hungry. But with meat- and cheese-heavy restaurants like Cracker Barrel and Arby’s adding plant-based meats to their menus, we expect Sonic to follow in their footsteps in the near future.