The ultimate lock-in: Cardiff prison to open gourmet restaurant

Alberto was made an MBE in 2009. Photo: PA

Whoever said jail food was bad? If given the green light by planners, a fine-dining eatery will be opening at HMP Cardiff - and it won't be Porridge on the menu.

The gourmet restaurant is the brainchild of the Clink Charity, which aims to help prisoners gain qualifications, and cut down the chances of reoffending, according to the BBC.

The charity was started by professional chef Alberto Crisci, and prisoners who work at the restaurant as cooks, waiters, and cleaners will gain City and Guilds, NVQ's and BIC's qualifications, according to the BBC.

Three-course meals made from locally-sourced food will be served, but metal cutlery and alcohol won't be on the menu.

What's more, diners will be searched before entering, and will have to get security clearance before getting a table.

Tables, chairs and other furniture will have been made by the inmates, who will also contribute poetry and art to decorate the walls.

The plans come after a similar venture in Sutton, Surrey, has been a big success, training 85 prisoners and bringing reoffending rates down from 50% to 20%.

We're not the first country to come up with the idea of a working prison restaurant; the Volterra Prison in Pisa, Italy, has an upscale eatery but you're also fed by inmates and have to clear security to get in.

There are also a number of prison-themed restaurants around the world, including Russian hockey star Evgeni Malkin's VIP Zone, opened in 2006 and designed to look just like a prison inside - a wooden plank serves as your seat and when you have finished waitresses dressed in striped prison wrappers will bring you a bill dotted with fingerprints.

Would you eat at the Clink café? Leave your thoughts below...

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