Cardiff's prisoner-run The Clink in UK's top 10 restaurants

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Signage outside restaurantImage source, Clink Cymru

A restaurant staffed by prisoners has been named alongside Michelin-starred eateries in a list of the UK's 10 best rated.

Cardiff's The Clink, run by low-risk inmates from Prescoed and Cardiff prisons, was ranked 10th in TripAdvisor's Travellers' Choice Favourite Fine Dining Restaurants UK.

Restaurants run by celebrity chefs Raymond Blanc and Michel Roux Jr also made the list.

The Clink aims to reduce reoffending.

Opened in 2012, The Clink Cardiff is now one of four restaurants run by prisoners across the UK through The Clink Charity, external.

It offers 30 category D prisoners full-time work in the kitchen and restaurant, who gain catering and hospitality qualifications to help them gain employment upon their release.

Other inmates work at the farms and gardens at HMP Prescoed in Usk, Monmouthshire, where they plant, maintain and harvest crops while working towards horticultural qualifications.

The idea was created by award-winning chef Alberto Crisci, who set up the first restaurant at High Down prison in Surrey in 2009.

Meet the prisoners behind the success here.

Image source, Clink Cymru
Image caption,

Prisoners working at The Clink are paid for 40 hours' work

TripAdvisor's Travellers' Choice Favourite Fine Dining Restaurants UK 2015:

  1. Adam's, Birmingham, West Midlands

  2. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottinghamshire

  3. Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons, Oxfordshire, run by Raymond Blanc

  4. L'Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria

  5. Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire

  6. Maison Bleue Restaurant, Suffolk

  7. Le Gavroche, London, run by Michel Roux Jr

  8. The Old Stamp House Restaurant, Cumbria

  9. Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh, Scotland

  10. The Clink Restaurant, Cardiff, Wales

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