It may just look like a supermarket, but it is actually a great place to get cheap food if you happen to be wandering Jackson Square in the evening. During the day, there is food similar to Wok-To-Go at Centro, albeit better and with a bigger selection. During the evening, the leftover food is put onto styrofoam trays and wrapped in plastic wrap, and sold at a discounted price. The variety is wide and it is like a dim sum restaurant, with food such as deep fried squid tentacles, ingredients wrapped in rice noodle sheets, deep fried shrimps, sesame chicken, even a deep fried whole fish! Just next to this is a selection of Chinese bakery goods, providing stuff like almond cookies, minced pork buns and glutinous rice desert. There are also sushi boxes as well as other Japanese lunch boxes. Wooden chopsticks are provided. Other selection varieties include bubble tea, Vietnamese food and ice cream. Keep in mind that the bubble tea, Vietnamese food and ice cream stations do not operate from open to close, and the Vietnamese food section operates only on certain days. If you do not wish to have Eastern food, there is also a selection of Western food located a bit further into the supermarket, but I haven't tried it. There are seating areas located next to the cashiers near the fresh food section, so you can eat your meal immediately after you purchase it. Or you can take it back to campus and eat.
If you wish to do your own cooking, you can shop around here. There is a live seafood section, with similar conditions to Fortinos. The supermarket has a wide variety of imported ingredients and products from around the world, and not just the Far East and the West. I recall there is also a limited amount of Indian groceries. There are also fruits and vegetables as you would expect from an average grocer, perhaps more.
This place is very accessible to McMaster students, as it is located in the heart of Jackson Square. Just take any bus going downtown (notably the 51 and 1) and get off at Main at McNab, then walk through the bus terminal and enter the highrise office building directly across from it on King Street. It shouldn't be difficult to find once your in there. To get out, exit by the McDonald's in Jackson Square and the westbound bus stop should be right there.
I've been coming to Nations for the past couple of years and I do quite like the food here. It is generally much cheaper and much better quality than the one you find on campus, not to mention a much wider selection. I'd say that this is a good place for people to eat, especially if they have business downtown like in the Central Library or FirstOntario Centre. The only bad experience I have had with them was with a coupon when they just opened. I had received two coupons for a discount for any item when I shopped with them for the first time. I used one of them on the discounted food on one visit, and had no problems. I had an ultra-cheap dinner and left satisfied. However, when I wanted to use it the second time for the food on the day before they expired, they said that it didn't apply to the discounted food items, despite the fact that it worked the last visit. I don't believe they're doing the coupon thing anymore, so that's done and over with. Also, some of the staff do not understand English very well, so complex inquiries may not be answered unless you know Mandarin.
Overall, I'd give this place an 8.
http://nationsfreshfoods.ca/hamilton.html
