Cardiff's top-rated restaurant is a prison

CARDIFF, Wales, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Residents of the Welsh capital cast votes on a restaurant-rating website and chose the city's top eatery -- a prison-based restaurant staffed by inmates.

The Clink Restaurant, which operates out of the HM Prison Cardiff and is staffed by 30 prisoners, was chosen over 945 other eateries in Cardiff to earn the top rating on TripAdvisor.

The restaurant, which offers breakfast and lunch service, opened to the public in 2012 and features a staff of prisoners who are each paid about $21 per 40-hour work week.

Officials said the prisoners obtain national catering qualifications that can help them to land jobs at luxury hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants after they are released.

"The whole team is delighted to have made it to the top spot on TripAdvisor, and to be ranked so highly against almost 1,000 restaurants in the city is a huge achievement for us," said Jason Lawrence, general manager at The Clink Restaurant.

"The recognition we have received from so many of our diners for the atmosphere we've created, the effort we put into sourcing our ingredients, the high standard of front of house service offered by the waiters and the skill our menus is incredible.

"A big thank you to everyone who has left such kind comments on our page, we'll continue to impress our customers and hope we can stay at pole position for the foreseeable future."

The prison said the rate of re-offending among former prisoners who worked at The Clink is only 12.5 percent, compared to the national average of 47 percent.