I ordered the same meal from Sonic and Dairy Queen. The winner had standout ice cream but a mediocre cheeseburger.

We spent $28 at Sonic on a cheeseburger, a sundae, chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, and onion rings.

We bought a cheeseburger and a chicken-fry-ring basket from Dairy Queen — the latter included chicken tenders, toast, onion rings, and fries.

With the addition of a hot-fudge sundae and cheese curds, our total came to $31.

Sonic's standard cheeseburger tasted like it came straight from a grill, which I appreciated.

The burger was dressed with mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.

The cheeseburger looked a little unordinary because the buns were much bigger than the patty.

Unfortunately, there was also too much mustard, and all I could really taste was that and the pickles.

Although the smallest order of Sonic's chicken comes with three tenders, they were substantial.

They had succulent white meat, and the breading added a great flavor.

Although the chicken tenders at Dairy Queen were way smaller than Sonic's, I did get four with the meal instead of three.

I found Dairy Queen's chicken to be less flavorful and a bit drier than I'd hoped.

I appreciated that the chain's combo included fries, toast, and onion rings without an upcharge. But the fries were just average, and the toast was nothing to write home about.

What I really wanted was more onion rings.

Sonic's onion rings were unappealing to me because they had an overly sweet taste — it tasted like the chain actually added sugar to the batter.

I'm all for a sweet-and-savory mix, but I didn't favor it in my onion rings.

Dairy Queen's onion rings didn't have the sweet taste that Sonic's did, so they automatically won me over.

Although they had a classic taste, there was a lot more breading than actual onion.

Sonic's mozzarella sticks didn't taste as fresh as I'd hoped, but they weren't bad.

The marinara sauce on the side was sweet and reminded me of the one that comes with pizza Lunchables.

Dairy Queen didn't offer mozzarella sticks, but it did have cheese curds, which I decided was comparable enough.

Of all the foods I tried at Sonic and Dairy Queen, the cheese curds were my favorite. They were full of flavor and tasted super fresh.

The cheese was stringy, and the flaky breading had a great taste.

The hot-fudge sundae felt pretty small, and the soft serve didn't have a very strong vanilla flavor.

I prefer the chain's flavorful Sonic Blast milkshakes, so I wouldn't get a sundae here again.

My small hot-fudge sundae from Dairy Queen had a richer vanilla flavor and was bigger than Sonic's.

I appreciated that the actual ice cream tasted good on its own and the hot fudge only complemented it.

Sonic may have had the better cheeseburger and chicken tenders, but Dairy Queen's cheese curds and onion rings far outweighed its competitor.

Since the ice cream was also much better at Dairy Queen, that chain was ultimately my winner.