IHOP has just served up its most extravagant breakfast ever – the £79 ($100) Luxe Dubai Chocolate pancakes. The limited-edition stacks are layered with pistachio cream, hazelnut spread and crunchy roasted kataifi, before being crowned with a full Dubai Chocolate bar, vanilla whipped cream, crushed pistachios and sheets of 24K edible gold. Just 25 gold-topped stacks will be given away for free in New York, Los Angeles and Austin on midday Monday, 4 August, with a toned-down version minus the gold selling for £10.20 ($13) afterwards. The move is aimed squarely at TikTok foodies and Gen Z brunch lovers, with IHOP claiming nearly half of surveyed Gen Zers said they'd try Dubai Chocolate.
The chain's viral play comes as Dubai Chocolate enjoys its 'main character' moment across the food world. Aldi sparked a frenzy with its £3.99 Dubai-style bar and a mochi version that vanished from shelves, while Lindt's luxury take is now selling for £10 at Waitrose, Tesco and Ocado. Lidl's J.D. Gross bar, also £3.99, was so popular it imposed a two-per-customer rule after a TikTok Shop boom. Morrisons joined in with its budget-friendly £5 Bolci Pistachio bar, and M&S went all-out with its £8 "Big Daddy" pistachio slab, swapping kataifi for caramel.
@ihop TOMORROW 👀 A pancake experience like no other ✨ 🗓️ Monday, August 4th ⏰ 12pm local time while supplies last 🤩The first 25 people in line at each location get to try our Luxe Dubai Chocolate Pancakes for FREE! Select IHOP locations: 📍New York: 235 E 14th St 237, New York, NY 10003 📍Austin: 707 E Cesar Chavez St, Austin, TX 78701 📍Los Angeles: 913 N San Fernando Blvd, Burbank, CA 91504
♬ original sound - IHOP
@uknewestfoods NEW Dubai Style Chocolate just landed today at @LidlGB 💚🍫 #fyp #lidl #dubaichocolate #dubai #chocolate #new #uknewestfoods #foryoupage❤️❤️
♬ Habibi (Albanian Remix) - Ricky Rich & Dardan
Not everyone is buying the hype, with critics on Reddit and X calling the pancakes a 'desperate PR stunt'. Still, with supermarkets racing to cash in and social media feeds filling up with gold-flecked syrup shots, IHOP's Dubai Chocolate pancakes are built to dominate the algorithm – and possibly your calorie count. Love them or hate them, this is no ordinary brunch.
