McMaster Cuisine

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You, venerable and youthful (yes those are oxymorons but let me glaze) McMaster firstie, have been bequeathed thousands of dollars worth of credits, of which you may use at any time at any on-campus dining accomodation. Unlike some other universities, like UoCalgary, for one, most of McMaster's options are owned and operated by the school/whatever catering megacorp they have premaking the food. And, the options! With over five different dining/cafe locations around campus (off the top of my head, Centro, Bistro, IAHS cafe, BSB cafe, MDCL cafe, Chopped Leaf, whatever other places exist), how can you decide what to spend your money on?

Let me walk you through some of the highlights at all of these places, being someone who has tried almost everything this campus's dining has to offer.

Before we start, let me just tell you this: nothing here is good value. There is 'robbery', 'highway robbery', and 'just hovering above a scam'. Even the best stuff here could probably get marked down by 10-50% and still make a profit: the campus knows they've got you by the balls by forcing the meal plan on you, and by forcing upfront payment. Keep that in mind.

Also, this is just for fun. You are permitted, nay, encouraged, to get your own opinions. Try everything on the menu, even if you're not sure if you'll like it. You have the money and you're here anyways. You have no reason not to. Come up with your own favorites, come up with new ways to combine menu items, ask others what they think. I'm trying to channel my best NYT Guy Fieri review spirit here, but this is all in good fun.

General

Cooler Fare

In coolers or cooling racks across campus, you will find several items in several locations. These locations include MUSC, Centro, Bistro2Go, Chopped Leaf, and the cafes.

The sushi is really expensive. Seriously, if I go to Costco (yes, Costco has sushi), they average $0.5 per piece. On campus, it's more like $1.5 a piece. Do you understand how ridiculous that is when you're buying 8 pieces at a time? Unfortunately, it is palatable, and buying two trays is probably somehow the best cold lunch you can get. All of them are nice, but be aware the wasabi can mix with the pieces ahead of time especially with nigiri which you need to watch out for if you don't like wasabi.

There are boxed wraps, which are good. It's usually some form of chicken wrap, and it's usually pretty safe.

The Prepped logo will be on some items like yogurt parfaits and sandwiches. They are fine. The parfaits in particular are also quite good and very useful for cosplaying someone who actually eats 'healthy' things. Sandwiches taste straight out of a factory but taste alright for $5. I liked to buy one, keep it in the fridge on res, and eat it in the morning before an 8:30.

Desserts

Across campus in coolers and cabinets, you will find squares, cakes, pastries, and delicacies.

Verdict?

They're generally pretty good.

However, I do not recommend the premium donuts. Their fillings are disappointingly tasteless and too sweet at the same time, which I did not know was possible before coming here, and generally do not give off good mojo. The other donuts are good, and the breakfast pastries are nice especially if you swing by in the morning before an 8:30. Everything else is decent to alright.

In terms of the squares and cakes (the ones in plastic containers in coolers), their haystack brownie, berry cheesecake, and black forest cake are my favorites, but everything from there is usually a safe bet.

Centro

Some people hate it, most people don't really like it, and some sickos (like me) actually kind of like it: it's Centro.

Located next to the service center on the PGCLL side, it's a very convenient option for half of the residences, either being right downstairs or just a few minutes' walk away. It has several mainstays of vendors, but their menus or just specials may rotate on an interval. Let's break it down. I've probably eaten here the most out of every establishment.

Paramount Shawarma

If you head on the Reddit or talk to upper-years, they will probably tell you the Shawarma at Centro is one of the better options on campus. However, recently, I've been told by people close to the Hospitality department that it fell off tremendously starting around 2024/2025. I don't know. In the 2024-2025 season, it was just alright to me.

They have a very convenient shawarma meal option, containing rice, your choice of main (chicken, falafel, etc), salad, and your choice of potato chunks or fries. It's easy to eat, and as with all 'meal'-ish options on campus, you want to mix it before digging in. Their shawarma wraps are also good, if not a bit of a calorie bomb, and filling for their price.

However, do not buy their specials! Their beef skewer or whatever it's called looks and sounds good, but it's more like a processed turd-from-a-butt that could not look any more straight out of a mold if it tried. You only get one or two, compared to a whole scoop of chicken in the regular meal.

If you order anything, try to get it with everything: tahini, hummus, all of the toppings. The pickled turnips (the fluorescent pink things) especially stand out and add some great vibrancy.

Taste of Home

Yeah, no.

This is meant to be the 'ethnic' food stop, if by 'ethnic' you mean some sort of overseasoned approximation of what someone probably imagines 'ethnic' food would taste like. However, it does taste good. Won't knock them for that. Noodles, veggies, and General Tso were my comfort meal for exams. I can vouch for the pork too, though it's usually quite chewy and tough. Overall, especially if you come later in the day, the food may be dry, hard, and generally unpalatable. Food with sauces is less susceptible, which is why I like the General Tso. The chana and rice are underrated and great for $6 if you find yourself running low on funds.

Don't get the butter chicken. I'm not sure how they achieved it, but it is brown. Your butter chicken is brown. They should genuinely ship it off to a lab because I don't think that's normal. However, it is still alright (??) but very, very salty. Do take into account I have very low standards. The naan comes straight out of a plastic bag: I'm sure everything else in the damn building does too, but it in particular just doesn't seem very good even considering that factor.

The prices here are egregious, especially for sides, unless you plan on getting a meal. I do not believe a single scoop of veggies actually costs $5, thank you very much.

Crave

I actually didn't eat here all that much, but what I did have was decent.

I like their wraps: if you've seen the wraps in plastic takeout containers in fridges around campus, they get made at Crave. They're pretty good too. They are one of the few ways you can get fresh veggies on campus so you can at least pretend you're eating healthy. I don't recommend their tacos, if they're still doing those, they are smaller than you think. Their quesadillas would be alright if you couldn't get better ones across the street at Chopped Leaf. Look, folks, generally speaking, on campus, the least-hard to mess up things are generally the best. Wraps and sandwiches decent, complex things bad.

Soup Bowl

Underrated. $5 is decent for a nice bowl of soup. However, I would highly recommend waiting until they have a chunky soup in, because those are infinitely more filling and interesting to drink. My favorites were the clam chowder and beef and vegetable, but you can shop around since it rotates daily. Least favorites were tomato and minestrone (look, I'm sure others will disagree, but soup is a beautiful thing. Everyone likes something different. Just try it.)

Note all the soups are oversalted, so you may want to also buy some sort of carb to soak it up.

Craveables

I'm pretty sure this is what the dessert station next to Crave is called.

They're good. Just too expensive for me, and during first year, I was dieting on and off so I didn't try them all that much. The cheesecake-on-a-stick is the real deal, but $10 for one singular slice of cheesecake is literal robbery, no matter how fancy the toppings. Also, the cheesecake can and will easily slide off the stick and onto the ground if you're not careful, showing the gimmick may not have been thought through all that well. Ask me how I know.

Everything else is fine and honestly quite good. The fudge brownie delight was also nice last time I had it.

Steeltown Grille

Probably the most forgettable place in Centro. Serves the most pastiche generic menu imaginable, and their quality reflects that: always decent, sometimes bad, but never good. Their breakfast kind of wants to be Denny's, but isn't. It's just below average if you're into that kind of thing. A burger for $10 is again highway robbery, and it tastes kind of like a middle schooler's first attempt at cooking something that's not in the microwave.

Do not get the poutine. They take fries, rip open and cover it with a plastic meth-baggie's worth of cheese curds, and drown it in a liter of the saltiest gravy imaginable. Seriously, finishing a plate of it will probably kill your desire for poutine for the rest of your natural life. I presume Hospitality must have collaborated with the chemistry department to come up with some sort of supersaturated brown salt solution to use as gravy because you seriously have to taste it to believe me.

In general, everything here is $5 more than it should be, wait time is usually considerable, and it's not even good. Skip it.

SMPL

This place can either be the tastiest stuff you've had in months (keep in mind that on campus, that isn't saying all that much), or the worst meal you have ever had the displeasure of paying for. Here's a guide to help out.

If it can dry out/be ruined by exposure, it will be. Chicken breasts? Yup! Just as dry, unseasoned, and tough as you can imagine, and yes, you will be paying $10 for the privilege. You only get one, by the way. Have fun!

The saucier, wetter, and marinaded stuff will be safer. Cauli mac and cheese, moussaka, sauced chicken wings, all safe bets. Their vegetables are usually just south of decent but carry some suggestion of Sysco frozen veggies. The rice is alright. It's rice. Hard to screw up rice. Also, their ribs are usually the best thing at Centro that day if they have them. You get a 'nice' portion (refer to what I said about value at the top) and they taste good. I recommend a full meal as dinner, or even as a lunch/dinner hybrid, since it'll probably fill you up enough while also letting you pretend you saved money. The reason I suggest getting the sides is that the mains are usually so damn oversalted that you will absolutely need the sides to help mop it up.

Pasta/Pizza

I don't actually know if this vendor has a name.

The pasta isn't great. The pizza isn't great. Long waits. Probably the closest thing to real food in the building, though, ergo the waits. That's all I have to say about that. If you want full pizzas, order a full pizza from the Pizza Pizza in MUSC. Yes, you are allowed to do that even though everyone just orders slices.

Salad Bar

Be warned: your selection will weigh more than you think, and it gets expensive FAST. Their specialized premixed salads are pretty good, but this is again one of the few places where you can reliably get fresh vegetables.

Misc.

There are also coolers placed around containing more stuff you can find in other places. However, some Centro-specific stuff are the juices- pretty good but exorbitantly priced ($8ish for a tiny bottle)- burrito bowls/salads/other stuff in a brown paper bowl- not good, do not get, get something else- and this edible cookie dough stuff- pretty good.

Desserts

The best part of Centro, probably because they're all bought in from another vendor.

Here is the 'epicenter' of all the desserts you may find in coolers or on campus, such as the pastries, squares, cakes, etc. You will find by far the largest selection, and the largest supply. See above in the 'General' section for my thoughts, since you can find all of these across campus.

Chopped Leaf

Best food on campus. Congratulations!

In all seriousness, it is expensive, but it is one of the only ways to reliably get fresh vegetables. I like the wraps best, but others swear by their bowls or salads. Their sandwiches and quesadillas are also purportedly good.

I have tried every variety of wrap/salad/bowl they have, and my favorite is Santa Fe with avocado or chicken, Mediterranean with lemon dill tuna (trust me, the tuna + tzatziki combo is magic), and Southwest with whatever you want.

I'm not a fan of Bangkok- not a fan of peanuts or edamame- or Bold Buffalo- don't like the buffalo sauce- but I recommend you try it to see if you like it.

People do know this is the place with the best food on campus, and as such, there will usually be a line in the double digits of meters. Try to get there in the dead time in the :00s of hours where most people will be in lectures, and I have had success finding relative dead zones in the 11-1 PM region and the 3-4 PM region, but don't count on it. Probably changes day to day, and based heavily on luck if you'll be met with a massive pileup or not.

MUSC

My personal favorite place to get food. Central to campus, and you will find that unless you live right next to Centro or Chopped Leaf or Bistro (i.e literally every year except first), MUSC is just more convenient in every way. Has some peripheral vendors in the same building which I tend to lump alongside MUSC.

Starbucks

I don't drink coffee so can't say all that much. Somehow always has a huge line. It's a Starbucks, folks. You know what you're getting.

Tim Hortons

Line sometimes stretches to the stairs down to the basement. It moves reasonably fast, though. Again, I don't drink coffee so I don't have much to say. The pastries found all over campus are practically identical to Tims pastries, though, so keep that in mind.

Booster Juice

It's pretty good! Honestly, I find full-size smoothies can function as a replacement for lunch because of how 'filling' the ice makes me feel. If not, the snack option is perfectly decently sized and filling. The whole fun of having all those flavors is to try them all out yourself and find out which ones you like, but some of my favorites are Ocean Mist, Mangosicle, and Coco Crush.

Teriyaki Experience

A solid pick. Probably the second best external vendor under Chopped Leaf. The chefs and workers are all middle aged Asians so you know it's good. I like their spicy salmon bowl, though I honestly like the Pizza cooler poke bowls better, protein bowl, famous teriyaki, and I have heard good things about the Hot and Spicy if you're crazy like that.

La Piazza

Steeltown Grille

The McDonalds of McMaster. Same thing as for the Grille in Centro. Serves generic food with generic quality. Maybe below. Actually, definitely below generic quality. But, if you get there before 11 AM, they will have breakfast skillets there. Folks, for $10, the amount of carbs you get from one of those skillets is nothing to scoff at. You won't be hungry until like 5 PM, and they are extremely, extremely salty but still pretty good. Eggs are nice and runny, meat is acceptable, and the veggies taste like water-flavored nothing. About as much as you could ask.

That One Stall Next to Pizza Pizza

I don't actually know what this is called. It's inactive most of the time, but comes on every few weeks or so to serve regional food sponsored by a club. It's a nice change of pace and the food is... on par for campus standards.

Pizza Pizza

Basic, long line, but moves fast. $5 for a slice is pretty good, and considering the wait times of most other vendors, it's probably the cheapest food per wait time at MUSC. If you're a pizza snob or something you probably have an opinion on Pizza Pizza, but I don't. Occasionally they will have a special pizza ready and you can get a slice of that, but most of the time, it'll be cheese and pepperoni available. Make sure to sprinkle some of the spicy seasoning stuff on before you go.

Shawarma

Terrible.

The only thing they have worth considering is the shawarma poutine, tasting like delicious, delicious calories and pure salt, but that's it.

I will put out a special word of warning. DO NOT GET THE $6 VEGGIE WRAP. I mentioned above Hospitality must have collaborated with Chemistry for gravy, and I assume they must have done another collab with Kin as a study to find the worst possible tasting 'healthy' food they can still trick people into paying for. By the sound of it, it sounds like they're going to toss the veggies with sauce, toast it a little, maybe even add some extra stuff. No. They are going to open a baseball-sized pita that tastes like sawdust made form, stuff in half a handful of raw veggies, pour a squirt of sauce on top, and give it to you. Yup. That's it. Tastes horrible. Do not do not do not get.

Hammertown Subs

$15 for a 12 incher is crazy, but if you're trying to steal Subway's whole flow, you may as well copy their insane prices too. Fair's fair. Tastes decent. All the options are reasonably safe.

Guacamole

Yes, that's actually what the vendor is called. Yes, it's like if McDonalds was just called Burger instead. Yes, it's delicious.

This is the home of my favorite campus meal of all time, as well as the best value campus meal of all time. The tacos are insane value. At $2 a taco, it's almost on par with non-campus prices! Wow! You can eat them with your hands, but be warned you will make a mess. I prefer to grab a fork or spoon and mash it up into a taco salad. Tastes great too.

There are three main proteins: beef barbacoa, tex-mex chicken, and pork carnitas. The former is $1 more expensive for no good reason, the second is too dry more often than not, but the pork is like God's gift to man. It is so juicy, so tender, and deliciously stringy.

My favorite meal of all time is the pork burrito bowl. The bowls come with a whole family of stuff, like rice, corn, onions, guac, sour cream, salsa, and such. If you order it, you need to add a scoop of pickled jalapeños and a scoop of tortilla chips. I prefer the broken-up chips because they mix in more easily, but a few larger pieces are fine too. Sometimes they sell hotdogs. If so, there will be relish and mustard container right there. You want a dusting of relish and mustard on top. Then, finish with hot sauce. Don't add too much, as you already have the pickled jalapeños underneath, unless you're a real crazy guy who can handle the heat. Then, once you have it (by the point the lid may not even fit on it), mix it up, take bites of the rice first if it's starting to spill while mixing, and enjoy. There are levels to this shit.

The wraps have a tendency to explode over your hands but are also good. I don't really see a point in the burrito salads but you can go for them if you want. Also, they sometimes sell churros. They are hard, tough, and chewy, but any churro is better than no churro.

Misc.

The coolers have some unique stuff, like poke bowls. They're good. I don't like the ones with kimchi (I forgot the exact flavor names; give me a break it's been a year), but the ones with salmon are pretty great with the soy sauce.

There are also two heating racks. I don't like ordering from these since they are exorbitantly expensive and if you're spending the money you may as well just stand in line for 5 minutes. If you're desperate, though, they should be suitable.

Bistro

I'm not going to lie I don't actually eat here all that much. I could never be arsed to go all the way there. It is quite good though: their bubble tea, although sweet, can't be found anywhere else and is tasty. They also have a good dessert selection. The allure of Bistro is that you get your food served kind of like an actual restaurant and there's a big selection. I like the bulgogi, quesadillas, and black pepper beef. The $25 steak calls to me like the Green Goblin mask every time I visit, but I have been warned it is not very good so I have never taken the plunge.

Bistro2Go is basically Centro Lite. Nothing much to say about that.

Don't have a lot to say about this place; it has a giant menu, I'm sure others will be able to tell you more.

Fireball Cafe

It's all vending machines. Unless you want the novelty of getting a hot meal from a vending machine, skip it. Sucks.

IAHS Cafe

One of the best kept secrets on campus. It's more expansive than it looks. The pizza comes in its own containers which is cute, has its unique specials you can't find anywhere else, like bowls, pasta, and sandwiches, although I have never tried it.

ETB Cafe

The main allure is the Booster Juice here. For some reason, this booster juice has an expanded menu, containing stuff like juices and more smoothies than the MUSC one. Why? We may never know. Some of your courses may take you near here, like ENGINEER 1P13 lectures, but otherwise it's on the opposite side of campus from your residences so you probably won't find yourself here too often.

One cooler also spawns here.

DBAC Cafe

Whatever, man. It's a place where you can get food after a workout. Has a booster juice. It does the job.

Reactor Cafe

Another best-kept secret on campus. The Thode Garlic Sticks have gained this legendary status among engineers for how unexpectedly good they are, and their drinks are (or so I'm told) the best you can get on campus. For the umpteenth time, I don't drink coffee or tea so I wouldn't know. You can get pastries here too. Great for extended study sessions.

MDCL Cafe

Tiny place on MDCL ground floor. Pastries, drinks, that's about it. Does have a cooler with the general goods above, as well as a very limited hot food selection.