McDonald's to open 1st vegetarian-only outlet in India
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NEW DELHI (AFP) - United States (US) fast-food giant McDonald's, famed for its beef-based Big Mac burgers, on Tuesday said it will open its first vegetarian-only restaurant anywhere in the world in India next year.
The world's second-biggest restaurant chain after Subway tailors its menus to suit local tastes, which in India means no beef to avoid offending Hindus and no pork to cater for Muslim requirements.
The first vegetarian outlet will open its doors mid-next year near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northern India where religious authorities forbid consumption of meat at the shrine.
"It will be the first time we have opened a vegetarian restaurant," a spokesman for McDonald's in northern India, Mr Rajesh Kumar Maini, told AFP. "There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants (in India) as many Indians are vegetarian."
