Applebee’s O-M-Cheeseburger could be a poster child for the food trends of 2026.
It’s a burger with American cheese, bacon, and spicy honey mustard on a bun, cut in half and served cut-side-down in a skillet with bubbling queso sauce mixed with more cheese.
What trends does it fit?
The biggest trend so far this year is high-protein menu items. This is a burger, with cheese, plus extra cheese. That’s a lot of protein.
It’s visually appealing, especially for social media videos, because the cheese is bubbling — my TikTok post about it is by far my most successful one this year. That’s been a key trend for a while.
@foodwriterdiary I checked out @Applebee’s Grill + Bar’s new O-M-Cheese Burger #restaurant#burger#food#foodtrends♬ Green Onions - Booker T. & The MG's
It’s experiential and interactive, requiring dipping, which people love to do, and increasingly so if the proliferation of new sauces is any indication. In fact, Culver’s head of culinary, Kasey McDonald, recently told me that one key factor in sauce development is what people are likely to dip into it.
The O-M-Cheeseburger is also traditional, but with a twist, which so many trend watchers say is what mainstream consumers want.
Shortly after its launch in January, Applebee’s chief marketing officer Michelle Chin explained to me the reasoning behind its introduction.
“The young generations — Gen Z and millennials — love the experiential aspect of things,” she said. “And the O-M-Cheeseburger is about really celebrating what guests love.”
And it was a hit. It “quickly became our No. 1 best-selling burger ever, blew up on social media, and has been a big driver of our performance in Q1,” parent company Dine Brands chief executive officer John Peyton said during the earnings call for that quarter.
Imitation is often described as the sincerest form of flattery, and so Applebee’s must be feeling pretty flattered right now. As we reported earlier, TGI Fridays in February introduced a “Fondue-It Upgrade,” allowing guests to enjoy a burger, fried chicken sandwich, or loaded potato skins in a skillet of bubbling cheese for an additional $3.
And in March, Miller’s Ale House introduced the Skillet Queso Bacon Cheeseburger, which is a bacon cheeseburger in a sizzling skillet of queso mixed with chorizo and pico de gallo.
Margaritas, a casual-dining Mexican chain out of New Hampshire, just introduced the Skillet Burger, a half-pound burger patty topped with cheese, bacon, and chipotle mayonnaise on a buttered bun, served in a skillet of queso.
Applebee’s has responded by adding more cheese to its own skillet.
I don’t remember the last time I saw such rapid imitation. Dirty sodas have certainly proliferated, but it took a while. Those are sodas with other things added to them, like syrups or, more frequently, creamy items like milk or coconut cream that provide visual contrast, which we know is important for social media.
So maybe it wasn’t so much imitation as a bunch of restaurants understanding the importance of sizzling, dippable items and Americans’ love for burgers.
Chin, the Applebee’s CMO, said executive chef Cynthia Lara had been working on the O-M-Cheeseburger since 2023 and I’m sure getting the texture and bubbliness right takes a while, so maybe many operators were moving in the same direction anyway.
The question now, I think, is how many other restaurants will follow suit. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chili’s threw its hat in the ring. After all, its Hot Mozz cheese planks went viral thanks to their stretchiness and the visual appeal of a cheese pull, and the chain owns skillets every bit as much as Applebee’s does, having introduced non-Texans to fajitas in the 1970s.
It’s certainly a fun trend, and I’m curious to see how far it goes.