A & W Root Beer Drive-In

The burgers are great. You have to try the root beer float, it’s delicious. Good and fast service.

Cooked fresh. not today… horrible service! Pay attention to the paying customers not just the random friends of yours helping themselves to drinks and ice cream!!!
Having to wait over 25 mins for 2 cheeseburgers is completely ridiculous especially when I’m the only car waiting. meat was tough and fries were old

No.
It’s not much to look at today.
But this A&W has major history.
American film history, that is.
This is the car hop that George Lucas modeled the Mel’s Diner after in the movie American Graffiti. George grew up here, but decided to do the actual filming in SF. After getting their 50’s grub on here, all the cool cats & wanna be cool cats would head out to McHenry Avenue to cruise up & down the strip. It is that culture that the whole movie is about.
It all started right here.
Cruising was banned a while ago. But from what I’ve been told, the burgers here are still the same. I remember, in my sporadic visits here as a kid, thinking how cool the car hops on roller skates were. And getting a tray attached to your car window seemed so… modern. They bring the food to us, and we can eat inside the car, too?! This was the only place we were ever allowed to eat inside of the car. Right?
I. Loved. It.
The whole experience was great. Though food wise, I did prefer McDonalds.
See? I was picky even back then.
Forward to today. So much has changed. For one, the area is sketch, & the joint is supremely run down. The ordering machines are toast. I don’t think any of them work. There still are car hops, but, unless it’s a busy night (read: Friday or Saturday), there’s only one & you’re better off going inside to order. Lastly, I don’t think I want a tray attached to my baby’s window. That’s just not how she rolls. And, don’t come to linger. More than a few unsavory types are already doing that.
Do come to…
order a burger. And order a root beer float.
The floats here are legendary.
It needs some major TLC, but it’s still great to have it.
3 & ½ stars.

Place is my must stop, every trip to my hometown Motown! Best friggin Ice Cream floats eva!!!
My mouth is watering writing this review, sexy bitches!

The food is fantastic!!! Zombie drug addicts and freshly released criminals from the county jail are apparently allowed to loiter here at their leisure, without ordering food. What was even more alarming, was the bigoted staff. My co-​worker and I who are from out of town witnessed something I would only expect to see in a deep southern state. The two gals who were nice to us, noticed that the two guys who’s walked out were «possibly» a gay couple. One of the gals brought it to the others attention as she had no clue in the first place. As we were standing at the counter, they both went off on a «F-​Bomb» ladened tirade about how much they despised gays, and cant stand the thought. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME THE CUSTOMER! Then they go on to politely take our order. One of us is from CA and the other from FL. Being from both sides of this country, neither of us could believe the ignorance and dis-​respect they had for their customers. Be forewarned! Modesto sucks and so do the zombies that live there!

I haven’t eaten at this place in years but I loved my mini corndogs and for the first time they were fast n have me a large fry which I might add were great!

Horrible staff. At 10:20 the manager wasn’t here yet to open doors. They «open» at 10. Can’t imagine why they are irrelevant in modesto nowadays.

best root-​beer floats in town
i love the fries
and the burgers are old school but tasty

Haven’t been here in 20+ years. Took my 2 kids today and ordered burgers and fries. The cheeseburger was very good but the fries are just OK. The reason I give this a 2 stars is because. …
My kids went over and wanted a picture taken with the large figurine on the side by the bathroom. There is a playhouse next to it and both my kids went inside there after the picture. I hear my 8 year old son yell out to me «dad, there’s a needle in here!» I rushed in a found a used needle on the little bench inside with the orange cap next to it. Since the playhouse has no closable doors or windows, and is an attractive nuisance for the large transient population around there, I would sure hope the staff would check the grounds prior to opening. This was not a pleasant find and could have had grave consequences if a smaller child grabbed the needle and got pricked!

Not impressed at all.. The staff was very incompetent. They had a shrimp special posted on the window. They advertised shrimp combo. I tried to order it and the cashier stated it doesnt come as a combo. I stated that it is on the poster. She said she would go ask her manager. She then proceeded to go outside into a back building. She returned and stated her manager said no. However they would give us a 10% discount.. Really. Just give me the dang combo.. Anyways its was dirty and some weird people are just hanging out inside.. No eating just loitering.. Needs to be cleaned. Many tables were dirty.. No thanks, no bueno..

Food is really good. The staff however has a poor attitude which ruins the atmosphere. The specials are worth it because the Prices are higher than other A & W’s.

Fries, awesome! Burgers, great! A&W Root Beer in a frosted mug, NOTHING’S BETTER! Don’t forget about the Root Beer Floats! This drive-​in has been here since the ’50’s… Can you say American Graffiti?! I think this is one of the last original A&W drive-​ins. I used to take my son here every weekend and they would have a fun and casual parties with singing Elvis and Marilyn Monroe impersonators. Wow, that was so much fun. Totally cute. Love it.

I’m a big fan of A&W rootbeer. This place is very old, kinda run down, but has fresh paint and is clean. the staff is friendly and my bacon burger was cook just right. love the crispy crunch of the frys and top it. the Root Beer was Great! parking kinda sucks and the bullet holes in the building were a turn off. But it is in a bad part of town. But i must say. I was worth it.

Great time there with my brother and friend! Food was great, float hit the spot, service was good too. Fun Friday night!

I pulled up and ordered food in my car. The food was great. I had the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings. Everything was tasty.
The service was great as well.

On a Friday night, this should be one of the busiest nights (even in the winter). Unfortunately, it was very slow. Probably because it’s good years of cruising are far behind since cruising has been Outlawed. As a consequence for any establishment that is no longer able to bring in the revenue it once did, things are falling apart. So, if you over look the broken car hopper receivers, broken juke box, and missing lights, you can start appreciating the place for what it was 50 years ago.
The burgers are amazing thanks to ALL the burgers are made from Angus Beef! It’s all made fresh to order. All ingredients seemed fresh and basic — why ruin a good thing? No matter what you order, make sure to get The best Root Beer Floats in the area! It’s A&W at it’s best — well, like it was before.
Bonus: The waitresses still wear skirts and roller skates (at times) in the Freezing Winter Nights.

I love the Modesto A&W.
It doesn’t get any better.
I use to go here as a kid, and loved it.
As an adult I go to Classic Mustang meet ups.
So very nostalgic.
Roll up to the drive in and hit the button.
You order your food, and they come with a try that hang on your window.
There is just something about it that is great.
The food is really good too.
I love root beer, and it taste so much better in their frosted mugs.
If you are in Modesto, its a must try.

I’ll start by saying I absolutely love the root beer floats here but that’s where it ends. The burgers are bad, really bad and appear to be microwaved not grillled. The A&W burgers I remembered as a child, big, juicy, and delicious have now been replaced with frozen patties of unidentifiable meat and mediocre condiments. If I ran the place I’d abolish the meat and bring in freshly prepared ground beef. This place hasn’t been kept up and it’s a damned shame. If the present owners cared about quality and presentation they could really make this place what it once was. Sadly I don’t ever see that happening.
Service can go from great to poor in an instant. There are often many homeless people wandering about the parking lot. I’ve got nothing against homeless people, but I was raised to support myself and not beg or bother others.
They have karaōke on Fridays with an Elvis impersonator which drums up some much needed business for them. They’d do better to up the quality of their food to garner more patrons.
Pricing given the inferior quality is way too much. They do have cheap burger specials but that processed .99 cent burger isn’t fit for a dog let alone human consumption.
If you just want some good old fashioned root beer, a delicious float, or a soft serve cone this A&W will make you very happy. Take my recommendation though and avoid the food. If you want a cheap burger just go to Jack in the Box at Five Points or McDonalds on 9^th Street. If you want a better burger go to Charlie Brown’s or My Chef a few blocks away. Better yet drive to Lula’s in Empire and get a freshly made burger with fresh ground beef.

When George Lucas made American Graffiti in 1973 it was based on this car hop right before starting to cruise McHenry Avenue. I know, I lived it.
While over the years A&W has degraded it’s reputation by going from a sugar based home made at location root beer to mass produced corn syrup laden alternatives, I was surprised that the burger, fries and onion rings are the same.
The burger has a unique taste just for this location. Unlike fast food spin off’s this one uses the original flat grill just like the first location in Lodi that is about the same age, 112 years old now?
Nice car collection, a restored ’66 Camaro pulled in while we were there, enjoy our
photos.
This place has not changed much in decades as we used to eat here often when I was a kid. Still the same flavors and love when the Onion Ring batter gets dropped onto the fries by accident. That was never an accident and that’s awesome.
This is not the fast food that A&W whored out to be later, this is the real thing.
PS: When George Lucas went on to write Star Wars, the Mos Eisley Spaceport was based on this A&W location.

I’ve eaten at several diners by now: greasy burgers, cold Pepsi, tries to take you back at least one generation. I recently ate at one that is regionally famous. But my mind keeps going back to A&W on G Street in Motown.
It looks like it’s been here forever. Even though I grew up in a cowtown just north of Modesto, I never ate there until a few years ago, when we were in town for a funeral. We decided to go the whole nostalgia route: park the minivan in the drive-​up slot, the roller-​skating waitress comes out with a mug of root beer, we all get burgers and fries, the whole bit. It’s almost like Mel’s Burger City in «American Graffiti», except this is real — and George Lucas probably based Mel’s on this A&W. (BTW, it was Mel’s because that was a real burger joint at Mission & South Van Ness in San Francisco, closed up but waiting for the movie to be done shooting so it could be demolished.)
Food was pretty good, too. Go here for the experience as much as for the food.