Fast food, while not the healthiest, serves a practical and efficient purpose in certain situations.
While most people will avoid fast food when not necessary, if you are traveling, commuting, or on the road in any situation, the ease and convenience of fast food can be hard to turn down.
Trying to resist fast food on any diet is hard, but this isn’t more true than when on the keto diet.
If you are practicing keto on the road, sometimes you have to accept a low carb option rather than no carb, especially at fast food restaurants.
But don’t fear, this doesn’t have to be an unenjoyable or awkward experience. We have done the research on the low carb options, so you don’t have to.
Today we are just going to look at the main food items, excluding children’s items. So, keep reading to find out the low carb options on the menu at Sonic Drive-In!
Burgers
Sonic are known for their burgers and they are really tasty and tempting. Excluding the children’s items, here is a breakdown of the burgers and their carbs.
- Hatch Green Chile Cheeseburger with Mustard – 54g Carbohydrates
- Quarter Pound Double Cheeseburger – 32g Carbohydrates
- Sonic Bacon Cheeseburger with Mayo – 54g Carbohydrates
- Sonic Cheeseburger with Ketchup and Mayo – 52g Carbohydrates
- Super Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger with Mayo – 52g Carbohydrates
- Super Sonic Double Cheeseburger with Ketchup and Mayo – 54g Carbohydrates
- Super Sonic Jalapeno Double Cheeseburger with Mustard – 55g Carbohydrates
- Veggie Burger with Ketchup and Mayo – 70g Carbohydrates
So, surprisingly the Veggie burger actually has the most carbs, while the lowest carb burger is actually a Quarter Pound Double Cheeseburger.
If you are looking to add an extra to your burger, Hatch Green Chiles are actually 0g of carbs, while Slaw has the most carbs as 17g.
Sandwiches
Another really popular item on the Sonic menu are their toast sandwiches, similar to a burger but uses two toasted pieces of bread instead of the bun itself, which does boost the carbs. Let’s check it out.
- Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster Sandwich – 58g Carbohydrates
- BLT Toaster Sandwich – 43g Carbohydrates
- Chicken Club Toaster Sandwich – 54g Carbohydrates
- Crispy Chicken Wrap – 48g Carbohydrates
Interestingly the wrap isn’t the lowest in carbohydrates, probably due to the breading on the chicken, even though wraps are usually low carb.
On the Sonic Sandwich menu, the BLT Toaster Sandwich is actually the lowest carbs at 43g, while the highest carb sandwich is nearly 10g higher in carbohydrates.
There are also just normal sandwiches to choose from on this menu as well, not listed as ‘toaster sandwiches’ but just ‘sandwiches’.
- Country Fried Steak Sandwich – 80g Carbohydrates
- Fish Sandwich – 57g Carbohydrates
- Grilled Cheese Sandwich – 51g Carbohydrates
- Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich – 53g Carbohydrates
- Pork Tenderloin Sandwich – 73g Carbohydrates
Here, the BLT Toaster Sandwich still remains the best low carb sandwich option by quite a bit.
Chicken
Chicken makes up a large part of the Sonic menu, and is a popular item to order. Let’s see what the low carb option is.
- Asian Sweet Chilli – Boneless Wings 6pc – 32g Carbohydrates
- Asian Sweet Chilli – Boneless Wings 12pc – 65g Carbohydrates
- Asian Sweet Chilli – Boneless Wings 24pc – 129g Carbohydrates
- Buffalo – Boneless Wings 6pc – 17g Carbohydrates
- Buffalo – Boneless Wings 12pc – 34g Carbohydrates
- Buffalo – Boneless Wings 24pc – 68g Carbohydrates
- Honey BBQ – Boneless Wings 6pc – 33g Carbohydrates
- Honey BBQ – Boneless Wings 12pc – 67g Carbohydrates
- Honey BBQ – Boneless Wings 24pc – 133g Carbohydrates
- Chicken Slinger – 35g Carbohydrates
- Crispy Chicken Sandwich – 48g Carbohydrates
- Crispy Tenders 3pc – 16g Carbohydrates
- Crispy Tenders 5pc – 27g Carbohydrates
- Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Small – 24g Carbohydrates
- Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Medium – 36g Carbohydrates
- Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Large – 55g Carbohydrates
- Asian Sweet Chilli – Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Medium – 78g Carbohydrates
- Asian Sweet Chilli – Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Large – 118g Carbohydrates
- Buffalo – Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Medium – 38g Carbohydrates
- Buffalo – Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Large – 59g Carbohydrates
- Honey BBQ – Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Medium – 73g Carbohydrates
- Honey BBQ – Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken Large – 111g Carbohydrates
Some of these chicken options can actually be way lower carbs than the burgers and sandwiches, thanks to reduced bread, with most of the carbs coming from the breading of the chicken.
As a result, a 3pc Crispy Chicken Tenders, or a 6pc Boneless Buffalo Wings are actually super low carb options at a meager 16g of carbs – win!
Hot Dogs
Everyone loves a good hot dog, but how do they compare to other menu items in terms of their carbohydrate load? Let’s have a look.
- All-American Hot Dog – 41g Carbohydrates
- All Beef Regular Hot Dog – 31g Carbohydrates
- Cheesy Bacon Pretzel Hot Dog – 27g Carbohydrates
- Chicago Hot Dog – 41g Carbohydrates
- Chili Cheese Coney – 34g Carbohydrates
- Footlong Quarter Pound Coney – 55g Carbohydrates
- New York Hot Dog – 35g Carbohydrates
- New York Pretzel Hot Dog – 23g Carbohydrates
The choice of the pretzel hot dog bun is a useful one for those on a keto diet. They seem to have a much lower carbohydrate level than the generic brioche roll.
As a result, the New York Pretzel Hot Dog, and the Cheesy Bacon Hot Dog are both great low carb options, at 23 and 27 grams of Carbohydrates respectively.
If you don’t like the taste of these buns, the All Beef Regular Hot Dog is only 31g carbohydrates.
Breakfast Items
At Sonic you can enjoy their breakfast items all day long, which means they are worth covering in the article.
Of course, breakfast is a carb heavy meal, but let’s see what the low carb choice is, excluding kids items.
- Bagel Breakfast Sandwich Bacon – 68g Carbohydrates
- Bagel Breakfast Sandwich Ham – 71g Carbohydrates
- Bagel Breakfast Sandwich Sausage – 68g Carbohydrates
- Biscuit Sandwich Bacon – 40g Carbohydrates
- Biscuit Sandwich Ham – 43g Carbohydrates
- Biscuit Sandwich Sausage – 40g Carbohydrates
- Breakfast Burrito Bacon – 35g Carbohydrates
- Breakfast Burrito Ham – 38g Carbohydrates
- Breakfast Burrito Sausage – 35g Carbohydrates
- Breakfast Burrito Steak & Egg – 48g Carbohydrates
- Breakfast Toaster Bacon – 43g Carbohydrates
- Breakfast Toaster Ham – 45g Carbohydrates
- Breakfast Toaster Sausage – 43g Carbohydrates
- Brioche Breakfast Sandwich Bacon – 39g Carbohydrates
- Brioche Breakfast Sandwich Ham – 41g Carbohydrates
- Brioche Breakfast Sandwich Sausage – 39g Carbohydrates
- Cinnasnack Without Cream Cheese Frosting – 38g Carbohydrates
- Cinnasnack With Cream Cheese Frosting – 63g Carbohydrates
- Croissonic Breakfast Sandwich Bacon – 31g Carbohydrates
- Croissonic Breakfast Sandwich Ham – 34g Carbohydrates
- Croissonic Breakfast Sandwich Sausage – 31g Carbohydrates
- French Toast Sticks Without Syrup 4pc – 54g Carbohydrates
- Ultimate Meat and Cheese Breakfast Burrito – 47g Carbohydrates
So there’s nothing below 30g of carbohydrates on the breakfast menu, perhaps to be expected, but their lowest carb options are either the bacon or sausage Croissonic Breakfast Sandwich at only 31g of carbohydrates.
This is thanks to croissants being mainly air and not so doughy.
Sides
The sides list at any restaurant, but particularly at Sonic, is quite long. But here are all the items that are lower than 30g of carbohydrates.
The Ched’R’ Bites Small are only 23g carbohydrates, as is a Corn Dog and Small Pickle-O’s.
Funnily, all three of these items are over 10g less carbohydrates than your classic small fries.
Final Thoughts
So, as a fast food chain you won’t be expecting too many low carb options at a joint like Sonic.
However, there are items on the menu lower than 30g of carbohydrate, which we can consider low carb.
For a burger, their Quarter Pound Double Cheeseburger is only 32g which isn’t too bad, or equally a BLT Toaster Sandwich is the lowest carb option on that menu, but is 43g carbohydrates.
The Pretzel Hot Dogs are also worth looking into as the bun recipe has less carbs by nature, meaning the New York and Cheesy Bacon Pretzel Hot Dogs are only 27g of carbohydrates – score.
Even lower in carbs, and perhaps a better choice for some people, would be the 3pc Crispy Chicken Tenders, or the 6pc Boneless Buffalo Wings, both at only 16g of carbohydrates, being the most substantial but lowest carb item on the menu.
