InspectLens
Burgers

Sonic Drive-In

Sonic Drive-In's Florida stores average -0.20 high-priority violations per routine inspection relative to their county baseline (95% interval -0.33 to -0.07), below the county baseline. Rank 10 of 12 burger brands, counted from furthest below the baseline.

-0.20vs county baseline, 95% interval -0.33 to -0.07
0.86 vs 1.07raw high-priority violations per routine inspection vs the baseline its stores face
97stores in 42 counties, 405 routine inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26

The food: where these dishes come from

Sonic Drive-In is known for hamburger, tater tots and hot dog. The stories are about the dishes, not the brand, and live on PlateTales.

Hot dogThe History of Hot Dogs, From Frankfurt to Coney IslandPlateTales

By fiscal year

0-0.55FY2016-17: -0.54 (n = 93)16-17FY2017-18: -0.44 (n = 101)17-18FY2018-19: -0.55 (n = 114)18-19FY2019-20: -0.22 (n = 121)19-20FY2020-21: -0.44 (n = 163)20-21FY2021-22: -0.30 (n = 141)21-22FY2022-23: -0.38 (n = 149)22-23FY2023-24: -0.23 (n = 150)23-24FY2024-25: -0.07 (n = 133)24-25FY2025-26: -0.32 (n = 122)25-26FY2026-27: -0.20 (n = 52) partial year26-27*

Relative to the county baseline, first visits of routine inspections. Open circle and * = fiscal year in progress (data as of 2026-11-09). Hover a point for n.

Most-cited violation codes

Citations per 100 routine inspections, Sonic Drive-In vs all Florida inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26 (n = 405). Descriptions are DBPR's.
CodeDBPR descriptionSonic Drive-InFloridaRatio
36Floors properly constructed, clean, drained, coved119.839.93.00x
14Food contact surfaces designed, constructed, maintained, installed, located69.646.91.48x
22Food contact surfaces of equipment and utensils clean65.943.61.51x
23Non-food contact surfaces clean47.923.62.03x
29Plumbing installed and maintained33.316.91.97x

Outcomes

23.7% vs 19.6%routine inspections that needed a callback visit, vs all Florida (raw)
1.98% vs 1.01%routine inspections ending in an emergency order recommendation, vs all Florida (raw)
76%of 94 stores with 2+ inspections score below their county baseline after shrinkage toward the brand mean

Emergency closures

2 closures of Sonic Drive-In stores in DBPR's weekly extracts (2025-12-29 to 2026-11-06); latest 2 shown. Reasons are DBPR's own wording.
ClosedCityCountyReason (DBPR)
2026-06-15Miami GardensMiami-DadeRodent activity
2026-02-02Pinellas ParkPinellasRodent activity

Other burger brands

Ranked burger brands, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26.
RankBrandvs county95% intervalStores
1Five Guys-0.69-0.77 to -0.60126
2McDonald's-0.50-0.54 to -0.46865
3Burger King-0.49-0.54 to -0.44511
4Wendy's-0.42-0.47 to -0.38539
5Whataburger-0.40-0.55 to -0.2645
6Checkers & Rally's-0.38-0.48 to -0.28150
7Culver's-0.33-0.41 to -0.25125
8Hardee's-0.22-0.35 to -0.0880
9Steak 'n Shake-0.21-0.36 to -0.0368
10Sonic Drive-In-0.20-0.33 to -0.0797
11BurgerFi-0.20-0.39 to -0.0258
12Krystal+0.25-0.10 to +0.6430
Look up a single Sonic Drive-In location

Sonic Drive-In elsewhere

Where Sonic Drive-In locates: PlazaLens

Store-level matching: a store counts for Sonic Drive-In when its DBPR business name matches the reviewed aliases in InspectLens's brand list. Co-branded units (for example KFC with Taco Bell) are not counted for either brand.