5/23 This is a smoked taco joint, and I must say they really got some good tacos. It's definitely different since there isn't a lot of Mexican restaurants that do smoked meats. We tried a bit all of the different styles (hombre, fajita, and traditional). I loved the hombre style. I would come back again.

Lil Hombre is a unique restaurant situated just off of Main St. in Clayton. It's front enterance is located on Lombard St. however parking is off of East Second street which is South of the restaurant. The outdoor smoker reminds you that this isn't just your average taco joint. The wonderful smoked aroma spills out and surrounds the restaurant in it's smoked meaty glory, urging you to enter for a taste. Whether you like to sit at the bar and enjoy eyeballing your food as it's made, sitting at a window table, side tables, or even enjoying the outside seating, you will find that there is ample seating all around. The simple decorative touch makes the restaurant feel fun and gives it personality. We showed up early Friday evening and were greated by the three extremely friendly employees at the bar/kitchen area. They were more than happy to answer any questions we had as well as gave suggestions on personal favorites and popular choices. The service overall couldn't have been any better. The food was really quite delicious. The menu is actually a pleasant change to the massive book of nearly hundreds of options you typically see these days. You have the choice of Pork, Steak or Chicken. Prepared in your choice of 3 different ways. You can make some minimal options to the choices, but the fact that you pretty much have 9 different options for meals puts their menu somewhere near food truck territory, and I love it. It means that they are focused on what they do well, and keeps their meals simple. I sampled all of the meats and stuck with the same style for each. Here's what I found. The pork was the most flavorful and tender option. The chicken was good. The steak on the other hand was good if you get a tender section, but tough if you don't. So the steak ended up being our least favorite of the 3. That's not to say that it was bad, just the tough sections were strange. Chicken - $5 Pork - $5 Steak $6 There are only 2 things I would suggest. First thing is a tad more quality control on the steak. The hard pieces of steak were a bit tough to chew at times. I honestly would love to see some sort of fish taco. Something that feels less heavy than the rest of the options. I think they could do it very well. We really enjoyed Lil Hombre and will absolutely be back. Thanks for the great time.

Quality of the food was great. I appreciate the simplicity of the ordering. I'm assuming since the meat is smoked, that each order basically just needs the shells heated and then assembly. Given that, the service was pretty slow. It took a while to place the order, drinks, and then also to get the food. I love that this type of artisan restaurant is in Clayton. I hope it is successful. Would highly recommend adding a chip/dip and/or nacho platter to menu. It could be very simple- add same protein/toppings as taco choices for nachos or just salsa, queso, guac