NEW DELHI – International restaurant chains selling pizzas and burgers are doing brisk business in India. But in the land of curry and spice, they needed to win over customers by adapting their menus to suit local tastes.

It is a busy lunch hour at a Subway sandwich outlet in a New Delhi market. But one of the popular subs being ordered is not on offer in other parts of the world - a sandwich made with chunks of chicken in black pepper and mint sauce.

Western food chains such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Dominos began entering India over the last decade after its economy was liberalized. They came across customers who wanted the international ambiance, but with a whiff of traditional spices.

So the outlets adapted their menus to suit the Indian palate, offering items that are hotter and more pungent, and adding onion and garlic wherever possible.

Pizza Hut came to India in 1996. Pankaj Batra is marketing director for Yum Restaurants Internationals, the chain's overseas franchiser. He says the chain spiced up its pizzas and added toppings such as barbecue chicken and roasted cottage cheese after observing the customers.

"For starters Indians have a wet palate, they like gravy in their food, we noticed they eat pizzas with a lot of tomato ketchup, so we have experimented a lot with changing the base sauce that we use on the pizza," he says. "We have got these "masala" [spice] pizzas, tandoori [barbecue] pizzas where the flavors we have used in the pizza are localized."

For more than two years after it opened its first outlet in 2001, Subway offered only its standard U.S. style sandwiches in India. Four months ago, it added a range of what it calls "Indian Delights" - sandwiches that include chicken in a spicy South Indian sauce, or barbecued vegetables and lentil nuggets.

Manpreet Gulri is the main franchiser for Subway in India. He says the company added the Indian items when staff saw that catering to local tastes had helped competitors increase sales.

Mr. Gulri says the sandwiches sold internationally go down well with Indians who travel overseas frequently. But customers still getting used to these chains prefer a local flavoring - and very often this is the larger segment of the market. "Response has been very good. We have had increased footfalls. People are appreciating the sandwiches," he says. "We have introduced eight Indian sandwiches; most of them are very popular with the customers."

Many of these chains also offer more meatless items than anywhere else in the world to cater to vegetarians, who make up nearly one-third of the market. Many Hindus, who make up India's majority, do not eat meat - and beef is taboo.

As a result, outlets such as McDonald's sell only chicken or fish burgers. It also offers a range of vegetarian items.

That keeps customers such as Sameer Kalra happy. "Not everybody goes for non-veg [vegetarian]," he says. "We like veg burgers and we like good variety to be there."

Pizza Hut has even opened two all-vegetarian restaurants in the western state of Gujarat to cater to the Jain religious community, whose members prefers not to eat at places where meat is served.

International food chains sell localized products in other parts of the world as well. But Mr. Batra with Pizza Hut says in other countries only one or two such items are usually offered, whereas in India, the local range is as large as the international one. "The kind of work and research that goes into it is probably more extensive in India," he says. "Indian heritage on food is very rich. They know their food, the idea is to give them the options."

The strategy appears to be working in a market of a billion plus, where people are eating out more than ever as incomes rise and lifestyles change. Since 1996, Pizza Hut has opened 70 restaurants in India, and plans to add 30 this year. And the Subway chain has opened 31 outlets in the past year and a half - after starting in India with just five stores in 2001.