5 Sep 2012

McDonald's to open vegetarian restaurant in India

10:25 am on 5 September 2012

McDonald's is to open a vegetarian restaurant in Amritsar in northern India next year.

The chain already tailors its menus to suit regional tastes - which in India means no beef to avoid offending Hindus and no pork to cater for Muslims. Both can eat the same meat-free dishes.

The outlet, its first wholly vegetarian store, will open in the middle of next year.

It will be near the Golden Temple in the holy city. Consumption of meat is forbidden at the shrine.

McDonald's already has a menu that is 50% vegetarian in India. Its signature dish is the McAloo Tikki burger, which uses a spicy fried potato-based patty and is a top seller, accounting for a quarter of total sales.

The BBC reports India is still a small market for the company, which has only 271 restaurants there, and nearly 33,000 worldwide.