Nations Fresh Food

Needed some evenly sliced pork belly, so I went to the meat counter and asked the butcher if I could have a large slab sliced for me. He refused, saying I could slice it myself at home, as there was no bones in it. Really? Whatever happened to customer service?
It’s a great store, but don’t expect friendly service, in fact, don’t expect much in the way of service at all.

I used to love coming out here to get groceries that you can’t always find in the other major chains. But lately the service and products have gone downhill. I have asked several times if they could order more Inari sushi cans (those soy pockets that get from the sushi restaurants), and every time they say they will get them. But nothing is ever there. As well, try are by as clean as they used to be, before they rotated they produce and I k ow their produce was always fresh. Now, a few times I’ve bought produce and it goes bad or tastes stale (e.g. Apples were very dry). I think it’s time to switch since the management doesn’t seem to care.

This place is definitely a place full of foods of many Nations! I used to live in the area and this was my place to go for groceries, meat, fish (with live sea food/​crabs), cooking utensils & cleaning goods. Nations also has a take out section where they serve a range of hot Chinese food. After moving out the area a year ago, it was nice to come back & see that this place hasn’t changed much but is still busy. You can 100% get what you need under one roof (except alcohol of course).

We were so happy to find a grocery store like this in our area, we even told friends and family about this grocery store to check out all the great things it had. Until a few incidents I encountered that really changed my view of this grocery store. I noticed as I was buying produce a lot of it was nice on the outside but when you cut into it, it was spoiled, i have had this issue with avocados sold in the green mesh, I only buy them separate now, apples surprised they were mussy and dark inside. But last week when we went in the buy groceries, when we got into the car we went over our receipt and saw that the plums were $ 9.32 we thought that was a lot and I ran back to return them. At the counter the girl took my receipt and the plums and told me its a different weight, I didn’t understand at first what she was getting at, but i told her this is impossible I just bought them walked to the car and now she was telling me the weighed less, so she could not give me back the same amount of money, I told her to check the scale at the check out we went to, she did and said its the same weight. At this point she was telling me I took out a plum! I was so shocked I told her to just give me the refund. Which now came out to $ 8.03, the scale when buying was at 3.90Ib and on the return was 3.36Ib– I really felt that they are wrongfully weighing in the produce to make an extra dollar on peoples groceries, Buyer’s be aware that your grocery bill is actually higher on items that have to be weighed, they no you have no way of knowing if they take a dollar here and there on weighted items. I will definitely take my time from now on at the cash counter to go over pricing, because they rush you and you don’t realize what you are purchasing. When I asked for a manager I was told he is on vacation, they would not give me anyone to speak with, and when I asked for a name they gave me Michael Cho, not sure if he is the manager or he is made up! But how does a whole grocery store operate with no manager or someone responsible on the floor! This was very shady to me.

So they have RAISED the ready food section and made portions smaller! The menu is hardly legible… THE PORTIONS are WAY SMALLER, like i am still hungry which was not the case before. The recipes for the food are totally different and i think someone/​new owner for this portion of Nations. The deals are not that good anymore. Today i cannot even find an online flyer for the new friday deals, which i always do before heading over there. This is the thing, when they have it going really well they go and F it up. I don’t go out of my way to go here anymore cause like i said. NO DEALS to be found here anymore, not worth the drive. I think its happening across the board with many places. Trying to squeeze every dollar out of the business at the express of the patrons. Same on you Nations… I WAS loyal… lost me now.

Make sure you leave your credit card at home because they only accept cash and debit only. Bring your grocery bags to save on the 5 cents per bag fee… plus it is better for the environment. This grocery store has your typical asian foods along with an awesome food court to go with it.
The food court has vietnamese food you can order fresh along with dim sum and typical chinese combos. There is plenty of seating and selection of foods. They have a bakery that sells cake and breads. Prices are reasonable and parking is plenty. You can also buy a lottery ticket here too to test your luck.

When I first walked into this store, I saw the slogan «Where East meets West» and I thought to myself «that’s the exact same slogan as Oceans». Lo and behold, after walking around the store, seeing the Oceans logo on their buns and then seeing the women at the steam table wearing «Oceans» jackets, it became clear to me that it is under the Oceans banner.
So how does this compare to Oceans?
–Similar lighting. Not too bright, but a bit more dim.
–Prices are on par.
–They have some great prepared food specials (Some of the specials this week: croissants @ 3/​$ 1.00, cooked corn — 6 cobs for $ 1.00, chicken feet for $ 1.69, etc.).
The one thing that Nations has that Oceans doesn’t is a larger seating area, and the fact that they serve Vietnamese food.
Overall, it’s a very decent grocery store and while not as cheap as Foody Mart, it is much cleaner.

I didn’t even know this supermarket existed across from the Colossus theatre. It’s very clean, has all foods in different varieties that’s split by Nations hence the name, good quality and best of all, it’s cheap. T&T better watch out because Nations is pretty good competition, I’ll be coming here to shop more often. Just a note for you shoppers, they only accept debit and cash, no credit cards up in this place.

This is my go-​to grocery store! The produce is always fresh as the turnover is pretty high since it’s a very busy supermarket. I love that they have hot foods as well as a sit-​down area for restaurant type foods like a steaming hot bowl of noodle soup or some rice and porkchop. I can vouch for the Bun Bo Hue and say it’s one of the best I’ve had — lots of flavour and they’re not shy about the shrimp paste, which is more than I can say for lots of phở restaurants in the city. It’s got an excellent mix of east and west from freshly made sushi to jamaican aisle to pasta. you name it!
Hot foods go on sale near the end of the day — around 7−730pm, which is good if you wanna grab something when you’re too tired (or lazy) to make dinner.
I deducted a star because they don’t accept credit card.

Whenever I wanna try to cook some Chinese or thai food I go there. I always buy ingredients for the bubble tea here. They have good selection of flavours. And they also have small take out with really cheap but fresh and tasty sushi. Store doesn’t accept visa so it’s kinda inconvenient for me.

Great prices, great selection, wish I lived closer… they also have Take-​out…

Above average grocery store with a great variety of various ethnic fares.
The store is divided into «sections»…Caribbean in one area (with great Jamaican products rarely found elsewhere), Indian in another, Thai, Southern Asia in another… great selection of items, all at a very reasonable price.
Someone else commented on subpar bakery… it is true… selection is small and pretty bland stuff.
Big plus is the Chinese takeaway located in the southeast corner of the store. Great selection at a very low price. Took a picky teenager there for lunch today and even she was impressed… not an easy task.
Not my regular grocery store (that’s Highland Farms), but when in the area, I always make a point of popping in.

Nations Fresh Food does have a wide varieties of products all under one roof!
Great fun to browse around and see what’s there as it carries a lot of items that are not available at T&T or Foody Mart that I usually frequent.
For the hot food area or food court, nothing much interested me as there are definitely better options as other Asian grocery stores I been to.
But for the Vaughan area, Nations Fresh Food provides the neighbourhood with affordable, fresh and a lot of varieties of Asian products!

Customers really irritate me at Nations Fresh Foods. First off, Canada is a wonderful place to live because we are MULTI CULTURAL. So why the racist comments about «its Canada, please speak in English!» bull crap? I would respect YOUR language as much as you would mine. At Oceans and Nations the service is that they can speak multiple languages and be PROUD of it. No one should feel ashamed about what language they speak because of the country they live in. PET PEEVE thing to hear at any super market /​grocery store in GENERAL.
Also, customers DON’T LIKE TO READ SIGNS. On the flyers its clearly written certain items are on sale starting on dates, for example: Tuesday November 27^th — Thursday November 29^th. I am beginning to think some customers just ENJOY holding up the line with cashiers to argue about PRICING because THEY don’t wish to KNOW the dates these certain items are on sale. How can you not even see or read what’s on the flyer? Its written there for a reason!
Cashiers are friendly and can all speak in English with the exception of some that don’t. But that’s OK we live in CANADA and there’s Little Italy and Chinatown for that reason, so communities can stick together with languages they understand to communicate in.
Also, I don’t know how many of you have worked at a cashier position BEFORE but certain items that are scanned and the prices are wrong is NOT THE FAULT OF THE CASHIER. Sometimes management forgets to change them so PEOPLE DON’T HOLD UP THE LINE FOR THIS REASON.
Over all service is slow because of ridiculous customers that can’t read dates on flyers and argue over pricing that isn’t the fault of the cashiers!
I’ve also seen people who get frustrated when a cashier looks into their shopping carts. They’re just doing their job and making sure customers don’t forget anything! A lady in front of me today said she forgot three items when asked by the cashier if she could have them to scan. So the cashier kept looking at her cart in CASE and got the heat for it.
But one thing I DISLIKE about Nations the most is their limits! Its just so silly! It does say on fine print at the bottom of the flyer though:
«Check prices on display tags in store in case of discrepancy due to pricing errors on this advertisement. Offers valid while quantities last. this picture is only for reference, please make the object as the standard. Nations fresh foods reserves the right to limit quantities. No raincheck.»
THIS, is something I seriously need to wonder is illegal or not to put on a flyer in Canada and THUS the three star rating.
Another reason why I would not give Nations a four or five star rating is because the fish department lacks any sense of customer service and are always very rude. They ignore the customers and also LOVE RIPPING US OFF. They’ll enjoy selling you lobster with paper bags because even those weigh around a pound. Those paper bags are not light people! Don’t take it for granted. Always ask them to weigh without the paper bag if you can. They may also have tons of water with the seafood they rake up and weigh the water as well. You think its silly but that can cost you a pretty penny ladies and gentlemen! Ask them for the bag AFTER they weighed your seafood!
The food at the BBQ area in the food court are always out of stock at around 7:30pm. Even as there’s the final sale on BBQ food items its so salty that you would feel thirsty for a week straight. Its LOADED on MSG and you can just tell!
The grocery items don’t even have prices sometimes and I feel like I’m wasting my time trying to figure out how much something costs. Why have the product on store shelves if you’re not going to tell the customer how much it costs?
Seriously! Nations still has got tons of work and unless they do something about putting those products with prices and adding the right signs where they belong I won’t be back anytime soon! There’s a reason why a customer is waiting 20 minutes to be checked out and its because the cashiers always need to ask for price check!

Best. Store. Of. Life.
So cheap, it’s fresh, there are all kind of weird packaged foods that entice me with their «what the hell does that say» packaging…
It’s a little messy but if you come here on a Saturday you will see how many people there are. The set up is a little off but the store is sectioned off into produce, fish, etc so it’s convenient.
Past the fruits and veggies, they have crates STACKED with all kinds of stuff — packaged seaweed, $ 50 jars of nutella (ish is biiigg bro!), noodles, assorted nuts, oil, etc etc.
PS the guy at the fish counter is SO RUDE. Legit worst service, straight up ignore you kinda rude. But it’s ok… his punishment is that he smells like a Chinatown sewer all the time :)
OH AND THEY DO NOT ACCEPT LES CARDS DU CREDIT! So go with your mom. Like me. She’ll buy you stuff.

Let me first start off by saying this is the first time I’ve ever seen a supermarket pull a «where east meets west» type of thing (I’m used to T&T supermarket/​Canadian Superstore/​Loblaws… etc). The very least I expected to see Chinese-​English bilingual signage, but nope, nada. In that respect I found it was trying to hide the asianness of the supermarket… I guess you can say I’m biased, why should it be Chinese and not Vietnamese or some other asian language? I don’t mind, as long as there is at least one asian language in there that would be cool. But I guess their wide asian product selection speaks for the asianness of the supermarket.
There are definitely some good deals here and there, but of course I noticed some things that are more expensive than other places.
A major thing that persuades me to go to any supermarket is the atmosphere… And I felt weird in this supermarket. I thought it would be a cleaner more proper version of an asian supermarket, but no, I was disappointed. I heard hacking/​spitting of phlegm by a worker near the produce area. Then I saw a mop in a bucket at the salted fish area. The mop was under a shelf of salted fish and also beside a bucket of salted fish. I also find the fluorescent lighting to be very blinding…
One thing I really do like about Nations Fresh Food is their hot food/​BBQ area. I bought roasted duck and BBQ pork here and I loved it. It tasted great compared to other grocery places I’ve been to. I think I may just come here to eat!

This is the first Asian-​specialty grocery store on the west side of Vaughan as far as I know. It’s reminiscent of other Asian grocery stores in the Richmond Hill and Markham area, like T&T. They have pretty much everything that T&T has: exotic fruits, dim sum, a bakery, employees giving out food samples, and a huge crowd of shoppers. Needless to say, I was quite excited to see what they have available.
We purchased a lot of food, all for less than $ 20 total! On the list was longan fruit for $ 0.79/lb, and salmon fillet for $ 2.98/lb. There are plenty of grocery items that are comparable in price to other grocery store chains, but it’s always exciting to see sales on items that never go on sale anywhere else. We’ll definitely be back for regular grocery shopping.
The grocery store is located in a plaza that is still being developed. There are signs up for stores that are being built. And if you’re hungry for a burger, Five Guys is located in the same plaza.
Nations Fresh Food is open from 9am to 9pm, 7 days a week. Cash or debit only. Their shopping carts take $ 1 coins only (boo!).
Update:
They don’t take manufacturer’s coupons.
Things that I always get here because it’s cheaper than anywhere else: cremini mushrooms — $ 1, peeled garlic — $ 1.

Just went here today. My mum says its like T&T except its cheaper. She likes it because its a close drive from home.
Its not bad. It is pretty cheap and clean too, but not as good as a north american supermarket. They have a lot of staff and I noticed they seem to hire a lot of students from a lot of background, but maybe temporarily since they just opened.
I went to their frozen section to inspect their frozen treats. Small selection, but still decent. They have some meiji, some bingrae, and I found some magnolia halo halo milk bars I never tried before so I bought one for myself.
Update: Okay. I came to this realization. This supermarket is totally undercutting prices of all grocery stores. Not amazing super selection, organization, or cleanliness, but they have amazing super low prices.

Grand Opening! August 28.
Nations Fresh Food.
Where East Meets West!
Over 50,000 Sq. Ft.
SPECIALS Effective Aug 28, 29, 30.
Dole Banana (columbia) 29c/​lb Watermelon (ontario) 99c/​ea
Whole King Fish $ 2.99/lb (no clean) Roma Tomatoes $ 9.99/box[40−50lbs]
FOOD COURT [Memories of Manchu Wok? Meh]
Fried Chicken Wings $ 4.99 General Tao Chicken $ 4.99
Sweet & Sour Shrimp $ 5.99 Cantonese Chow Mein $ 3.99
Shrimp Rice Roll $ 2.29 Chicken Feet w/​Chu Hou Sauce $ 1.59
BAKERY — Croissant 4/​$ 1.00
BBQ — Roasted Duck $ 13.88
SUSHI — Sushi Combo $ 9.99÷21 pcs
GROCERY — Heinz $ 2.99/1.25kg Gallo Olive Oil $ 9.99/3L
FROZEN — Thai Gold Headless Shrimp ³¹⁄₃₅ $ 3.99/400g
DELI — Prosciutto $ 1.98/100g
SEAFOOD — Live Mussel 99c/​lb
MEAT — Chicken Breast (Bone In) $ 1.49/lb
PRODUCE — Corn 5/​$ 1.00
SALTED FISH !! — Stankarama
*** Story Time ***
Blew my Mind. Absolutely.
I was speculating the King Fish selection at the Seafood Market section calmly.
A heavyset East Indian dude blows by my right shoulder standing inches to me.
Points at the King Fish & the King Fish Labels (!!) and ask…
…IS THAT KING FISH ?
I stand there next to him, my mind went Brain-​dead. WTF just happened here?
When I came to, he had already flew off before I could even spell K-​I-​N-​G to him.
It would have been the perfect opportunity to test out a Fish Recognition APP.
Before I fall into a permanent Coma due to other people’s stupidity.