Sonic Pulled Pork Bbq Totchos Review: Your New Favorite Snack For Late-Night Munchies
Have you heard? Sonic has pulled pork now — but if you want to try it, you'll have to go soon. For a limited time, the chain is selling three menu items that feature the protein: two sandwiches and one snack that seems to be tailor-made for nighttime cravings. I tried the whole pulled pork menu on the first day it was available to the public, but this review will focus on the Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos snack item.
The fact that the Totchos are built on a base of tater tots might make you want to order them as a side with your next Sonic meal, but trust me — they're loaded with enough pulled pork to make them a meal all on their own. While this menu item wasn't perfect, it was delicious in that salty, greasy, slightly trashy way that just hits perfectly when those midnight hunger pangs strike. Read on to learn everything you need to know about Sonic's new Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos.
What's in Sonic Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos?
In case you didn't know, the name "Totchos" is a portmanteau of "tot" and "nachos." As that implies, this dish is basically nachos but with crispy tater tots instead of tortilla chips forming the base. The tots are piled high with cherrywood smoke sauce (AKA barbecue sauce), smoked pulled pork, and two kinds of cheese: a Cheez Whiz-like zesty cheese sauce and shredded cheddar.
While this is the standard configuration, you are free to customize your order of Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos as you see fit. You can request to go heavy or light on the cheese sauce, shredded cheese, and barbecue sauce, for instance. If two cheeses aren't enough for you, you can go dairy-wild and throw on a slice of processed American cheese. Or, if you want more classic nacho flavors, try decking the tots out with chili, pickled jalapeño slices, and diced onions. Sonic may not be Burger King, but you can still "have it your way" here.
Where can you buy them, and how much do they cost?
Sonic's whole pulled pork menu is available at all of the restaurant's U.S. locations. From January 29 to February 5, you can only order the pulled pork items using Sonic's mobile app. After that, you will be able to buy them on the app or in person at Sonic restaurants until March 31. If you miss the deadline, you'll just have to wait until the chain decides to serve pulled pork again (if that ever happens).
Sonic says that the Pulled Pork Barbecue Totchos start at $3.39, but I paid $4.99 plus tax for them. How much they cost likely depends on where you live; my area has high food prices. Despite the elevated cost, I found this snack to be a reasonably good deal compared to other fast food places in my city. $5 for an order of food that's somewhere between a large snack and a small meal isn't bad these days.
How do they compare to other items on Sonic's menu?
The Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos feel like they belong at Sonic. I would consider tater tots to be one of Sonic's signature items — not many other fast food places offer them as a side. In addition to serving them plain to accompany your burger or hot dog, Sonic also has a couple of loaded tot options on its permanent menu, including Cheese Tots topped with a melted slice of American cheese and Chili Cheese Tots with chili and shredded cheddar.
If you'd like to get even more adventurous with your fried snacks, Sonic has you covered as well. Its Ched 'R' Peppers are fried jalapeño poppers loaded with melted cheddar cheese and served with ranch, while its Buffalo Chicken Dip Bites are a demented mashup of fried ravioli and hot wings. Sonic seems to be quite conscious of the fact that a certain type of customer may visit the restaurant late at night in an altered state looking for greasy munchies, and it caters to these folks well. The Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos fit right in.
Nutrition facts
Per the nutrition figures published on Sonic's app (which is currently the only place I could find them), an order of these Totchos comes in at 580 calories, which is a lot for a snack, but reasonable for a meal. Not so reasonable is the fat content — this item's 36 grams of fat are nearly half the FDA daily value. The menu item's 10 grams of saturated fat is exactly half the recommended daily limit.
But the most concerning nutrition statistic for the Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos is the amount of sodium they contain: 1,620 milligrams, which is over two-thirds of the recommended daily value. It would be quite challenging to stay under the recommended sodium limit on a day when you eat this dish. While it's fine to indulge in excess sodium from time to time, chronic overconsumption of salt may put you at risk for cardiovascular problems and other significant health issues.
Sonic's Pulled Pork BBQ Totchos are salty but satisfying
Believe me: You can taste every one of those milligrams of sodium in this dish. My main complaint about the Totchos was that they bumped right up against the edge of being too salty. I still enjoyed them quite a bit and finished my order, but I had to drink a lot of water afterward.
I was impressed by the texture of the tater tots. My problem with most potato-based "nacho" dishes is that fries or tots don't typically stand up as well to toppings as corn chips do, but these tots stayed crispy even after I brought them home and took pictures of them. The toppings themselves were simple but effective. Those included a generous portion of pulled pork that had been fried on a flattop griddle until crispy. The barbecue sauce added sweetness and prevented everything from being too dry, and the cheese was super savory.
When I ordered the two Sonic pulled pork sandwiches, I had problems with them not being made with exactly the right components. I'm not sure the tots were exactly right either — all I could see and taste was cheese sauce, so they may have not had the promised shredded cheddar at my location — but I didn't feel I was missing out. This was a craveable, indulgent snack that I'd happily eat again.