Iași eats like Moldavia cooked before borders moved: sour ciorbă thickened with borș, mămăligă instead of bread, and sheep cheese from the hills east of the city. Add Cotnari wine, 60 km north, and you have Romania's most underrated food city.
Iași's workaday neighbourhood market, open daily roughly 06:00–18:00. Village producers sell brânză de burduf, telemea in brine, smoked slănină and pickled gogoșari by the jar. Cheese runs 25–40 lei/kg, honey 30 lei/jar. Cash only at most stalls.
The market beside the university hospitals has a row of covered stalls frying plăcinte poale-n brâu — sweet cheese pastries folded at the corners, a Moldavian speciality. Eaten hot from paper, 6–9 lei each. Also găluște and covrigi from the same window.
Iași's oldest surviving tavern, on Rece street, pouring wine since 1786 and once the drinking room of the Junimea literary circle including Eminescu and Creangă. Cellar-cool interior, house wine by the carafe, tochitură and sarmale on the daily list.
The vaulted cellar under the tavern stocks Moldavian bottles: Cotnari Grasă and Tămâioasă Românească, Bucium Fetească Neagră from the hills inside the city limits. Tastings of three to five wines are poured at the bar rather than a set flight.
Iași's specialty roastery, roasting on site and serving filter and espresso to a student crowd from around 08:00. Flat white about 14 lei, filter 12 lei, 250g retail bags of their own roast around 45 lei. Pair with a slice of cozonac.
Trei Sarmale has served tochitură moldovenească since 1786 on the Bucium road: pork simmered in its own fat, mămăligă, a fried egg and grated telemea on top. Portions are punishing; the terrace looks toward the Bucium vineyards.
Working vineyards on the hills 6 km south of the centre, part of the Iași wine region, planted with Fetească Albă, Fetească Neagră and Aligoté. Cellar visits and tastings by prior booking; bottles from the shop run 25–70 lei.
Evening service turns to the grătar: mici (skinless minced-meat rolls) with mustard and bread, pastramă de oaie — salted, smoked mutton from the Carpathian foothills — and cârnați de casă. Mici go for about 4–6 lei apiece, ordered in fives.
Romanian covrigi are baked all morning at the kiosks ringing Piața Unirii: hand-twisted rings topped with coarse salt, poppy seed, sesame or grated cheese, 2–4 lei each. Come before 10:00 while the trays are still coming out of the oven.
The southern market near the Nicolina rail district, busiest on Saturday mornings, with Danube and Prut river fish alongside vegetable rows. Carp and crap sold whole for saramură — grilled and dunked in salt brine with garlic and hot pepper.
Ștefan cel Mare and Lăpușneanu streets keep the old cofetărie tradition: amandine (cocoa-soaked sponge with rum), savarine drowned in syrup, papanași with sour cream and sour-cherry jam. Cakes 10–18 lei, papanași about 25 lei.
Strada Alexandru Lăpușneanu is the drinking spine, packed with students in term time. Order țuică de prune or a stronger palincă served in 50ml shots, around 10–15 lei, with a plate of slănină and raw onion as the traditional chaser.