El Camino Real

Clinton is a small town. You never know... eating out can be an adventure in any town. So a warm day called me to Camino.
Service is always good at Mexican restaurants to me, and the folks at Camino were friendly without exception.
I received advice from my server and ordered the Chile Relleno plate. They use Poblano peppers here... no pretender Anaheim peppers. Mine were quite good. The only thing that could have been better was the batter, which could have bean lighter and more delicate. But I often scrape my batter away to get to those awesome Poblanos anyway!
The rice was meh... and that is normal.
The beans were creamy and seasoned lightly... I liked them on their own. But here's a tip for you. I ordered mine with a side of chorizo to throw on them... and I threw it on the rice, too.
So I went from meh rice and good beans to good rice and awesome beans.
I really enjoyed my meal here.

Every time we drive through Clinton, we stop here to eat.  I try to plan our trip for that!

You should too...

Six of us dined on a Sunday at noon.

PRICES: quite modest, an excellent value. Most meals are $8-9. Our bill was $42 plus tip.

FRESHNESS/ QUALITY: Excellent overall. Light, fluffy Mexican rice, fresh tortilla chips, 5 of the 6 in our party loved every bite, but our young man was deeply unhappy with his chicken strip meal. (Will discuss menu items below.)

SERVICE: Tolerable, considering the excellent food, but needs better planning for busy meal periods. Not enough wait staff for a Sunday noon meal, waiters were stretched too thin to properly stop by their tables more than a couple of times through the entire 45 minutes we were there. Some of our meals came out of the kitchen 15 minutes after ordering; the vegetarian fajitas took 25 minutes. One of our group ordered a Burrito Gordo, which finally arrived some 35 minutes into the meal, by which time everyone else had mostly finished eating. None of this was intentional I'm sure, but the service is probably better when the place is less crowded.

MEALS ORDERED: vegetarian fajitas, burrito gordo, enchiladas suiza w hamburger, combination #10, Quesadilla, chicken strips. All Mexican entrees were superb. The kids chicken dinner was processed pieces/parts; according to our 7th grader, worse than McDonalds. (They need to tell whoever orders from the Sysco truck to spend an extra .75 cents per portion and get real breaded chicken strips instead. The kids DO get to vote on the restaurant choices in most families.) The menu could be improved by the addition of a couple of Pesco (fish) dishes. Vegetarian/ Pescetarian choices here are limited to refried beans (no whole), cheese enchiladas or vegetarian fajitas, none of which are low fat, heart healthy meals. Having said that, the vegetarian fajitas were one of the best I've had. (Yes, I am that oddball who searches for healthy entrees at family owned Mexican restaurants!)

All in all we were impressed with the food, but our young man will probably vote no to stopping here next time we come through Clinton, at least until he grows out of chicken strip meals.