"drive-thru" news and stories

One of the primary advantages of eating at a fast-food restaurant is getting fast service.

But you can't get fast service if you're stuck behind 20 other cars at a drive-thru window. Reports of long waits at drive-thrus and parking-lot entrances have slowed down the service at some fast-food eateries.

It's gotten so bad that police have been brought in to direct traffic. In July, at a new Sonic restaurant in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., an officer was struck and seriously injured by a driver leaving the popular eatery.

McDonald's bag. Photo: brutal, Flickr.

Would you like some drugs with that?

A Charleston, S.C., teen says he was given a loaded handgun and bags of marijuana in his McDonald's drive-thru order, WCSC-TV reports. The 18-year-old and his cousin received the .45-caliber handgun and the pot on Aug. 29 at a McDonald's on Savannah Highway.

"The gun and the marijuana was inside of a brown bag sitting inside of a McDonald's bag," said Kathy Rivera, the mother of the teen. "And they noticed they had three bags, and there were only two people in the car, so when he opened it, he noticed it."

The gun and drugs were meant for the car behind theirs in the drive-thru line, police said. The car followed the young men to a gas station, where one man approached the teen and demanded he give them the McDonald's bags, which the teen did. He told his mother about the incident the next day, and she contacted the restaurant.

A police report was filed. Charleston police tell Slashfood they're still investigating, though no arrests have been made.

Have you ever received something you didn't order at the drive-thru? Tell us about it in the comments below!

[Via WCSC-TV]

When fast food joints decide to expand beyond the burger, the first place they go is typically the chicken sandwich. After all, the kids in the back of the joint can basically do all the same things, just to a different patty. (Why don't the bigwigs just pick fish? Well, you know, the whole tartar sauce issue.)

Sonic Drive-In has recently added two new "premium" chicken sandwiches to its menu: Chicken and chicken bacon ranch. Both come either fried or grilled with an option for a "wheat" bun option (that apparently, per the nutritional details, does not actually contain any whole grain). As far as I can tell the quote-unquote wheat bun and slightly larger size are what make these suckers "premium."

Between the chicken and the bacon ranch chicken, guess which one tastes better? Well, the plain chicken (which I ordered grilled) is just that: Plain. A chicken patty arrives topped with lettuce, tomato and mayo on a less-squishy-than-usual bun. Though it's not that thrilling, at under 500 calories it's one of the less-heinous fast food options out there.

Naturally, the fried version with bacon and ranch dressing is more exciting even if it could use a bit more bacon or another dollop of ranch and you'll have to scurry double-time on the treadmill later. Is it tastier than the other chicken sandwiches on the market? Eh. Sonic falls into the chicken spectrum thusly: Superior to a McChicken, worse than a Carl's Jr. and can't compete at all with chicken-specializing chains like KFC or Popeye's. On my next trip to Sonic I think I'll just stick to burgers and Java Chillers.

Got a fave fast-food chix sandwich that makes the others look like frauds? Let us know in the comments.

As the weather turns chill and the holidays loom dimly upon the horizon, one's thoughts begin to turn to comfort food. But who's able to take the time to prepare lengthy, old-school recipes or ready to pack one's gut like a hibernating bear?

Luckily, Sonic has combined the flavors of a favorite old-fashioned, homemade dessert with the speed of the drive-thru in their new Banana Pudding Shake. The shake is made with genuine Nilla Wafers, just like the it should be (seriously, without the Nilla, it is not banana pudding), as well as vanilla soft serve, bananas and something called "pudding-flavored syrup," topped with a scoop of whipped cream the size of a monkey's head. A large monkey.

The chunks of banana and Nilla render it a bit chunky to suck through the straw, but when you savor a mouthful of shake and a crunch of cookie, it's a truly delightful moment. I personally wish the puddingshake tasted a bit more strongly of banana and packed a bit less vanilla-ness, but it's still a welcome coming attraction for one's post-Thanksgiving desert hoedown. And I will battle unto the death anyone who has the temerity to argue with the brilliant idea of a pudding-flavored shake. Unless, of course, they can hook me up with a few gallons of pudding-flavored syrup.