This is what I love about well-designed mobile sites: They give you the information you need quickly without all the fuss. No flash, no javascript, just good old fashioned information.

The SonicDriveIn.mobi site delivers on the promise of what a fast food mobile website ought to be. It is small, it loads quickly, and it provides a complete menu with nutritional information. This is very helpful information for people who are watching calories or fat grams. The “NOW at SONIC!” section highlights their main promotion, an “Everyday Value Meal” with menu items for $1.

The Sonic mobile site also has a location zip code location search at the top of the site in red (US only) and a city/state locator on a separate page. I do question the completeness of their search, however. Why are they advertising so heavily on television in San Diego if no San Diego locations show up in the search results? These results are missing from their .com site, too, so perhaps they need to update their database.

Sonic is involved in social media, and they have a Facebook group according to their .com site. A mobile Facebook link would help them tie this site into their social media presence, as would a Twitter account. If Sonic wanted to take things a step further, they could combine the mobile site with a registration process to send out SMS (text messaging) coupons to their subscribers.

All in all, I’d say this is an excellent model for what a chain restaurant’s mobile site should be.

This post is featured in Carnival of The Mobilists (computer link), a weekly round-up of mobile blog posts from around the world. Please visit the Carnival and enjoy what my colleagues have to say.