Restaurants
Applebee’s Goes Big, Bold and Cheesy
Applebee’s Piles on Molten Cheese, Crispy Cheeseburger Tacos and Candy-Colored Cocktails While Keeping Value and Community at the Heart of the Neighborhood.
August 27th, 2026
The first warning was the skillet.
It landed on the table hissing beneath two thick halves of Applebee’s new O-M-Cheese-Adilla Burger, surrounded by a bubbling moat of queso, melted Cheddar and tortilla chips already surrendering beneath the cheese. This was not dinner quietly arriving. This was dinner making an entrance.
Nobody will confuse it with the Weight Watchers option. The menu lists it at 1,670 calories, which feels less like nutritional information and more like a dare. Sometimes, however, you make the exception.
And this beautifully excessive burger gives you plenty of reasons.

The O-M-Cheese-Adilla Burger takes Applebee’s familiar Quesadilla Burger and cranks every dial until the knob comes off. A juicy beef patty, Pepper Jack cheese and smoky bacon are tucked between crisp, griddled quesadilla-style tortillas, then topped with cool lettuce and bright pico de gallo. The tortilla provides the first toasted crunch before giving way to the warm beef, salty bacon and creamy cheese inside.
Then comes the skillet.
Molten queso and Cheddar stretch beneath the burger while white corn tortilla chips soak up the overflow. Some stay crisp enough for scooping. Others soften into cheesy, pico-covered bites that require absolutely no dignity to enjoy. The fresh cilantro and tomatoes provide a little brightness, but let us be honest: this plate has no intention of pretending it is a salad.
Scheduled to join the menu Aug. 31, the O-M-Cheese-Adilla Burger is messy, enormous and gloriously committed to its own ridiculousness. You will need both hands, several napkins and possibly a recovery period.
Cheeseburger Meets Wonton Taco
Before the skillet stole the spotlight, Applebee’s Bacon Cheeseburger Wonton Tacos delivered a mashup that sounded gimmicky until the first shell shattered between our teeth.
The crisp wontons are packed with seasoned ground beef, melted Cheddar and Applewood-smoked bacon, then topped with pickles and a drizzle of spicy honey mustard. Each bite jumps from brittle crunch to juicy beef, followed by bacon’s smoky saltiness and the sharp snap of pickle. The honey mustard lands last, bringing enough sweetness and peppery heat to pull everything together.

They taste like someone took the best parts of a bacon cheeseburger, removed the bun and gave the fillings a crispier, more mischievous place to live.
The tacos also fit naturally into Applebee’s value-driven identity. They have been featured among the appetizer choices on the restaurant’s popular 2 for $25 menu, which pairs one appetizer with two full-size entrées at participating locations. In an era when dinner for two can make a credit card sweat, Applebee’s continues to understand that flavor matters, but so does leaving without financial trauma.
Cocktails That Taste Like Vacation
The food may arrive dressed in brown, gold and molten yellow, but the drinks turn the table into a box of tropical crayons.
The $6 Bacardí Blushing Dragon Mucho pours a vivid pink, mixing Bacardí Superior Rum with dragon fruit, premium lemon sour and lemonade. Dragon fruit gives it a gentle berry-like sweetness, while lemon sour adds enough citrus bite to keep it from becoming syrupy. The rum stays mostly behind the curtain, adding a warm finish to a drink that goes down with dangerous ease.
The Prickly Plunge Margarita brings more muscle. Don Julio Reposado Tequila joins Smirnoff Vodka, triple sec, prickly pear and lime, producing a drink that starts fruity before showing its grown-up side. Prickly pear rounds out the lime’s sharper edges, while tequila and vodka leave a noticeable kick beneath the sweetness.
Then there is the Backflippin’ Blue Margarita, an electric-blue tropical escape blending Don Julio Reposado, Malibu Coconut Rum, blue curaçao, passion fruit, pineapple, cherry and lime. Coconut and pineapple arrive first, tasting like a melted island ice pop, before passion fruit and lime sharpen the finish. It looks playful, tastes breezy and carries a stronger undertow than its bright color initially suggests.
The complete limited-time cocktail lineup is available through Applebee’s Mucho summer drink promotion.
A Lemonade with More Behind It
The nonalcoholic Lemon Berry Sunshine may be the most meaningful drink on the table.
Lemonade, blue raspberry and premium lemon sour create a sweet-tart rush reminiscent of carnival candy crashing into a lemonade stand. A creamy swirl and whipped cream soften the citrus, while an edible lemon topper provides one final playful bite. Yes, you can eat it. We checked before making the wrong decision.
More importantly, 50 cents from every Lemon Berry Sunshine sold through Aug. 30 supports Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and its fight against childhood cancer. Applebee’s and the foundation have partnered for 22 years, raising more than $20 million for pediatric cancer research and family programs. Guests can also contribute by purchasing digital lemons through Applebee’s website or mobile app. More information is available through the restaurant’s Alex’s Lemonade Stand campaign.

That charitable effort reflects a larger part of Applebee’s personality that can easily get lost beneath the burgers and Mucho glasses.
Local restaurants host Flapjack Fundraisers on Saturday mornings, Dine to Donate events and school-based reading incentives. Athletic teams, bands and community organizations can raise money while bringing families together around the table. Some locations feed football players before games, distribute promotional footballs in the stands and welcome those same families back afterward.
That neighborhood connection is not merely a marketing slogan. We met employees who have spent 12 and even 36 years with the company. One current host began visiting the restaurant with his mother at age two, announced that he would work there when he grew up and eventually did exactly that.
Halloween Invades the Soda Fountain
Our visit also included an early taste of two alcohol-free Halloween creations preparing to haunt the seasonal menu.
The Graveyard Soda looks as though a mad scientist took over the soda fountain. Mountain Dew and blue raspberry create a neon green base, followed by a creamy swirl, whipped cream, grenadine and a thick scattering of Oreo crumbs resembling edible graveyard dirt.
Mountain Dew and Oreos should probably not work together. Somehow, the citrus fizz, blue-raspberry sweetness and cookies-and-cream finish become a strange but entertaining dessert soda. It is fizzy, creamy, fruity and unapologetically weird. Halloween drinks should create a little chaos, and this one arrives ready to start trouble.

The Tropical Spell Mocktail is the calmer, fruitier potion. Pineapple, passion fruit, cherry, lime and dragon-fruit syrup combine into a purple tropical blend crowned with three bright cherries. It tastes juicy and refreshing, with passion fruit supplying tang while pineapple and cherry provide a rounder sweetness. If the Graveyard Soda is Halloween after midnight, the Tropical Spell is Halloween at sunset.
Familiar Without Standing Still
Applebee’s opened its first restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, in 1980, giving the brand more than 45 years of history. Its longevity comes from familiarity. Guests return for staples such as Fiesta Lime Chicken, Bourbon Street Steak, the Oriental Chicken Salad and Oreo shakes because they already know the flavors waiting for them.

Familiarity, however, does not have to mean stagnation.
The restaurant regularly rotates limited-time inserts and seasonal drinks, using combinations such as cheeseburger wonton tacos and skillet-soaked quesadilla burgers to give longtime customers something new without abandoning the comfort food that brought them through the door.

Kerry guided us through the parade of food and drinks, bringing extra straws so everyone could taste each colorful concoction. That relaxed, accommodating service mattered as much as the cheese pulls and neon beverages. Plenty of restaurants can serve a burger and a drink. The experience depends on whether the people delivering them make guests want to return.
Applebee’s still feels like the place where a Little League team can pile into a booth after a game, longtime friends can meet over margaritas, and a family can order enough food for dinner without sacrificing tomorrow’s grocery budget.

Meet the Management Team
This visit simply added more cheese, more color and a little Oreo-covered Halloween madness to the neighborhood.
Restaurants
Cocktails, Caviar and Waterfront Views: Sweetwaters Opens in Fort Lauderdale
Sweetwaters brings coastal dining, creative cocktails and New River views to Fort Lauderdale’s newly reimagined Huizenga Park.
October 7, 2026
If your ideal South Florida evening involves cocktails, seafood, a table by the water and boats casually passing by while you decide whether you really need dessert, Sweetwaters Fort Lauderdale may have just figured you out.
SFL Insider got an early look at the brand-new waterfront restaurant during its VIP opening celebration, and honestly, this is exactly the kind of place that makes living in South Florida pretty fun.
Sweetwaters officially opens October 12 inside the newly reimagined Huizenga Park, right where Las Olas Boulevard meets the New River in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. And while the food definitely deserves attention, you have to start with this location.
Because it is really good.
The nearly 10,000-square-foot restaurant was designed to take full advantage of the waterfront, with a huge indoor dining room, open kitchen, raw bar and two outdoor terraces. One patio stretches toward the New River while the other faces Huizenga Park, so basically, pick your view.
For the opening celebration, guests moved around the restaurant with cocktails in hand while trying passed hors d’oeuvres, chef-curated stations and selections from the raw bar.
Which, for the record, is a pretty excellent way to introduce yourself to Fort Lauderdale.
Okay, But Let’s Talk About the Food
Executive Chef Nicco V. Salanitro and Culinary Director Matthieu Godard are behind a menu that leans into Sweetwaters’ South Florida setting with seafood, sushi, shareable dishes and some menu items that clearly aren’t interested in being boring.
You can start relatively civilized with Yellowfin Tuna Crudo, made with mango, tangerine, ponzu and pickled Fresno, or the Castaway Roll with shrimp tempura, sashimi, avocado and yuzu aioli.
Or you can immediately commit.
The Grand Seafood Tower arrives loaded with East and West Coast oysters, chilled shrimp, mussels, clams, tuna tartare, crab salad and half a Maine lobster.
Yes. Half a lobster.
There is also a Chef’s Sushi Tower stacked with signature rolls, spicy tuna crispy rice, nigiri, sashimi and tuna crudo.
And things only get more interesting from there.
The Whole Crispy Local Snapper comes with coconut-cilantro rice and aji verde. Lobster Spaghetti pairs an entire Maine lobster with spicy tomato vodka sauce. The Pink Brick features wagyu flat iron with black truffle butter and chimichurri and gets scorched tableside.
But our attention immediately went to two words:
Nuggets & Caviar.
They are exactly what they sound like. Free-range chicken nuggets topped with yuzu crème fraîche, Osetra caviar, gold flakes and lime zest.
It’s fancy. It’s ridiculous. We want it.
And apparently vegetables are allowed to have personalities here too, because one of the sides is literally called Spinach, But Sexy.
We appreciate the commitment.

@RomainMaurice
Save Room for a Cocktail. And Probably Dessert.
The cocktail menu is equally playful.
Tiffany combines tequila, bergamot liqueur, citrus and coconut and gets finished with limoncello sorbet and white pearls. Paid Vacation mixes passion fruit and tarragon-infused vodka with purple basil and Szechuan flower, while Cloud Nine brings together ginger-infused vodka, yuzu sake and orange-ginger tea with lychee caviar and citrus-aloe foam.
And because Sweetwaters apparently understands that sometimes we shouldn’t have to choose, there’s an Affogato Martini with vodka, espresso liqueur, espresso and a scoop of Madagascar vanilla bean gelato.
Dessert isn’t exactly subtle either.
Going Bananas is a giant shareable sundae with brûléed banana, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla bean gelato, salted caramel, candied pecans and cherries.
Then there’s Miss Trunchbull, an 11-layer chocolate cake.
If you know, you know.

@RomainMaurice
This Might Be Your New Las Olas Happy Hour Spot
Sweetwaters comes from Specialty Restaurants, the family-owned hospitality group behind Miami’s longtime waterfront favorite, Rusty Pelican. This is the company’s first Fort Lauderdale restaurant and its first Florida expansion beyond Key Biscayne.
But Sweetwaters doesn’t feel like it is trying to recreate Miami in Fort Lauderdale.
The restaurant feels made for this particular spot.
Huizenga Park, the Riverwalk and the New River are right outside, and the restaurant was designed so you can move between the dining room, terraces, park and waterfront instead of feeling closed off from everything happening around you.
Chef Salanitro described the idea as somewhere guests could walk through the park, stop for oysters and cocktails while watching the boats pass and then stay for dinner after sunset.
Yeah. We can work with that.
The VIP opening brought out plenty of familiar South Florida faces too, including fashion designer Rene Ruiz, former Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, real estate developer Ramola Motwani, developer Luis Birdman and Specialty Restaurants President and CEO John Tallichet.
But once the party is over, Sweetwaters has to become somewhere locals actually want to come back to.
And with waterfront tables, a weekday happy hour, an inventive cocktail menu, seafood towers, lobster spaghetti and literal caviar-topped chicken nuggets?
We don’t think convincing people to come back is going to be the hard part.

@WorldRedEye
Sweetwaters Fort Lauderdale Opens October 12
Sweetwaters officially opens October 12, 2026, at 58 E. Las Olas Blvd. in Downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Dinner is served Sunday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 11 p.m. Even better, happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the bar. Sweetwaters_Pre-Opening Release… Sweetwaters_Pre-Opening Release…
So yes, we got to see Sweetwaters before everyone else.
Now it’s your turn.
Grab a table outside, order something from the raw bar, get a cocktail and stay long enough to watch the New River change as the sun goes down.
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UKIYO Miami Beach Brings Luxury Conveyor Belt Sushi to Lincoln Road
UKIYO Miami Beach Is About to Make Conveyor Belt Sushi Seriously Sexy
September 2, 2026
There are new restaurant openings we want to check out, and then there are the ones that immediately make us think: I NEED TO GO.
UKIYO is definitely the latter.
Opening this October at 818 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, the newest concept from NOAH Hospitality Group takes Japan’s iconic kaiten, or conveyor belt sushi, tradition and gives it a Miami makeover.
We’re talking premium seafood from Japan traveling through the dining room on a custom-designed conveyor belt, live culinary performances, tableside cooking, a roaming dumpling cart and a gorgeous 7,431-square-foot space designed to keep the experience moving all night.
And judging by the first renderings and menu details, UKIYO already has our attention.

UKIYO’s custom kaiten conveyor belt will serve as the centerpiece of the new Miami Beach restaurant. Courtesy of Casa Medina Design Studio/UKIYO.
Not Your Average Conveyor Belt Sushi
Inspired by the Japanese concept of ukiyo, meaning “the floating world,” the restaurant is designed around movement.
The conveyor belt isn’t simply there to deliver sushi. It’s essentially the stage.
Handcrafted nigiri, sashimi and specialty rolls will continuously circulate through the dining room, while chefs work in view of guests and new creations make their way from the sushi counter onto the belt through choreographed presentations.
Live culinary performances will add another layer of entertainment throughout dinner.
NOAH Hospitality Group founder Philippe Kalifa says that sense of experience was intentional.
“For me, hospitality has never been about simply serving food. It’s about creating emotion.”
His goal? To create a restaurant people remember not just for what they ate, but for how the entire evening made them feel.
We’re listening.
The Menu Is Where Things Get Really Interesting
Executive Chef Nono Shigetomi will lead UKIYO’s kitchen, with premium seafood sourced from carefully selected fisheries across Japan and fish coming from Tokyo’s Toyosu and Tsukiji markets.
The signature Ukiyo Roll alone sounds like it deserves a visit: tuna, salmon, hiramasa and Hokkaido scallop topped with soy-glazed wagyu and umami crunch.
“Freshness isn’t our goal, it’s our starting point,” Shigetomi said. “Every ingredient is selected with intention because great sushi begins long before the fish reaches the plate.”
Beyond the conveyor belt, the menu ventures into robata, tempura, crudo, carpaccio and Japanese comfort dishes.
Expect cumin-soy glazed wagyu and yakitori-glazed chicken from the robata grill, plus a rich paitan ramen loaded with braised duck, sous vide chicken, pork chashu and pork wonton.
There’s also crispy yakisoba finished with ankake sauce and seafood fried rice made with seasoned takikomi gohan rather than standard steamed white rice.
And then things get even better.
Did Someone Say Tableside Kamameshi?
UKIYO’s traditional kamameshi will be cooked fresh at the table in individual kama pots.
The rice is prepared with dashi, soy, sake, mirin, hijiki, carrot and mushroom, then finished with grilled marinated skirt steak and a Jidori egg.
But there’s another menu feature that may have already won us over.
A roaming dumpling cart. Yes, really.
A signature House Dumpling Cart will travel around the dining room carrying a rotating selection of freshly handcrafted beef, pork, chicken, shrimp and vegetarian dumplings. Guests can choose them pan-fried, steamed or deep-fried.
We have a feeling “No, thank you” is going to be extremely difficult when a cart of hot dumplings rolls up to the table.

Japanese-inspired lanterns and warm woodwork lead guests toward UKIYO’s open culinary experience. Courtesy of Casa Medina Design Studio/UKIYO.
And Just Look at This Place
The food may move, but UKIYO’s design gives you plenty of reasons to stop and look around.
Casa Medina Design Studio is behind the 7,431-square-foot restaurant, blending traditional Japanese influences with the darker, sexier energy of Miami Beach after dark.
Rosso Lepanto stone, emerald-toned leathered marble, aged brass, handcrafted millwork and warm Japanese-inspired lanterns fill the interior. A flowing water feature reinforces the restaurant’s “floating world” inspiration.
And at the center of everything sits the custom conveyor belt.
Based on the renderings, chefs will work within the heart of the restaurant as the belt winds around the dining room, placing the food preparation directly into the action rather than hiding it behind the scenes.
It looks intimate, dramatic and just theatrical enough.

UKIYO’s dramatic bar pairs sculptural stone, handcrafted millwork and softly illuminated Japanese-inspired details. Courtesy of Casa Medina Design Studio/UKIYO.
Sushi at 10. Cocktails at Midnight?
This is still Miami Beach, after all.
UKIYO isn’t positioning itself as somewhere you grab an early sushi dinner and head home.
On Friday and Saturday nights, the restaurant plans to remain open until 2 a.m.
And that gorgeous bar suddenly makes a lot more sense.
The restaurant is being designed as a meeting point between Japanese hospitality and Miami’s international, nightlife-driven personality. Traditional techniques and Japanese ingredients form the foundation, while theatrical presentations, dramatic interiors and late-night hours give the concept a distinctly Miami edge.
It’s easy to imagine coming for sushi and staying considerably longer than planned.
When Does UKIYO Miami Beach Open?
Unfortunately, not tomorrow.
UKIYO is scheduled to open in mid-October 2026 at 818 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.
Dinner will be served from 6 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, with Friday and Saturday service continuing until 2 a.m. The restaurant will be closed Mondays.
And yes, SFL Insider will be getting an early look.
We’ll be heading to UKIYO ahead of its official debut to experience the restaurant firsthand, which means we’ll be back with the sushi, the cocktails, the space and, most importantly, a full investigation into this roaming dumpling cart.
For now, UKIYO has officially made our list of Miami restaurant openings we cannot wait to try this fall.
October, hurry up!
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