AMRITSAR SAHIB, Punjab—McDonald’s will open its first ever vegetarian-only restaurant in Amritsar, the fast food chain said today.

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.

Rajesh Kumar Maini, a spokesman for McDonald’s in northern India, said: ‘It will be the first time we have opened a vegetarian restaurant.

‘There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants (in India) as many Indians are vegetarian.’

After the opening in Amritsar, the US chain has plans to open another vegetarian outlet near the Vaishno Devi cave shrine in northwestern Indian Kashmir – a revered Hindu pilgrimage site that draws hundreds of thousands of worshippers year.