S_3 models offer an attractive low energy approach to describe the observed pattern of mixing, of both quarks and leptons. In this talk, I will briefly revisit the two classes of S_3 models. For the first one, which has only one Higgs field, doublet under SU(2)_L and singlet under S_3, the S_3 group must be broken in order to produce an acceptable pattern for fermion mixing. For the second class of models, S_3 is preserved after the electroweak symmetry breaking as an exact but hidden symmetry of the low energy spectra. These latter class of models require the addition of two more Higgs SU(2)_L doublets which form in turn an S_3 doublet. Then, I will present chi squared fits of the models descriptions for mixing angles, using the most up to date experimental information. I will comment about the remarkable quality of the fits and how further improvement of the determination of mixing and fermion masses, along with the phenomenology in the Higgs sector, would be able to pin down the preferred model.