McDonalds To Open All-Vegetarian Restaurant

McDonalds isn’t exactly a healthy option when it comes to satisfying those hunger pangs, but executives are working on that. Reports are saying that the fast-food giant is planning on opening an all-vegetarian restaurant next year, with plans for another shortly thereafter.

Unfortunately for domestic vegetarians, the all-vegetarian McDonalds won’t be opening stateside anytime soon. Rather, the first Big Mac-free locale is planned for Amritsar in northern India, where it’ll be located near the Golden Temple. Why? According to AFP, the all-vegetarian opening’s location is due to the fact that people are barred from eating meat at the shrine. The next opening is planned for Katra, near another religiously significant location (the Vaishno Devi cave shrine) that sees hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims annually.

“It will be the first time we have opened a vegetarian restaurant in the world,” a spokesman for McDonald’s in northern India said.

Interestingly, the all-vegetarian McDonalds is really just a natural evolution of the menu already in place in India. According to Newser, the burger chain is already halfway there in the country. The menu over there is already half-vegetarian, and offers chicken primarily. No beef or pork is to be had in India’s McDonalds restaurants, primarily to accomodate Hindu and Muslim eating customs.

In fact, the top seller over there is already a meat-free option: the potato-based McAloo Tikki burger accounts for nearly a quarter of all sales. McDonalds’ goal is simply to crack open a market that is already teeming with potential consumers (about 1.2 billion of them) but light on McDonalds locations (271 of 33,000 worldwide).

What do you think? Would you make a pilgrimage to India to sample the all-vegetarian McDonalds menu?