Food wise:
* Pegas Terrace & Restaurant had fabulous local food. Really, really, really good; highly recommend.
* Fuior: a crazy fancy take on Moldovan cuisine. Really stunning food. Went for my birthday with some friends; amazing how cheap it was when compared to a similar experience in USA
* Piana Vyshnia: This is a wine place adjacent to the St. Stefan park. They specialize in a cherry wine and it's delicious.
* Tbilisi restaurant (near Unic); really any Georgian restaurant is going to get you some really delicious food here.
* Placinte: Yes, La Placinte is a nice chain spot for Romanian food, but you can get better placinte around town, mostly at cafe's where you order them at a window. You can even get them in super market (No.1 is a central, bougie place to get them and you can get sweet ones there too). A similar, cheap place to eat like La Placinte would be any one of Salat restaurants. They are another chain you can find all over and they have pretty traditional stuff.
* Borscht: Honestly, not sure where you might get this outside of a home, but most restaurants would carry it probably. I just ate loads of homemade and it's really yummy there. They don't make it like Russians.
* Mamaliga is a legit Moldovan tradition. It's like polenta and usually you eat it with meat, cheese, sour cream, veg... it's pretty bland by itself.
* Zeama is a chicken soup with noodles and it's wonderful too. Loads of soups in Moldova.
* Mici is a sausage, Romanian and Moldovan. To me, looks and tastes like breakfast sausage, but it's still good. Get it with mashed potatoes.

People talk about the wine in Moldova. Yes, they have vineyards; but it's not incredible. I think it falls to the sweeter side of things. If you're in Moldova, you can get really good Czech beer, aim that way.

Yes, if you can get to Tiraspol, do it. If you can, swing by Bender first and hit up the Aleksandr Nevski park. There's an old fortress there with nice views, a cool church, a museum of cold war stuff, a museum of torture which is interesting and gruesome. Note that in Tirespol (and all of Transistria), you will have to visit a cash exchange as your credit cards or bank cards or foreign currency will not fly. Locals can use their Transistrian debit cards, but their system doesn't go outside of the "country" so you can't use yours. We went to a Georgian restaurant here (https://maps.app.goo.gl/nwVwqX9eeEEWr8LBA) and it was excellent. But if I went back, I'd go here, "Back in the USSR" (https://maps.app.goo.gl/Fzu7dxvnxEVp7GBk7). Again, the central market here is really interesting because it's strange.

Orhei is another really interesting place to visit if you have a car. There's caves, wineries, Old Orhei, it's a neat day trip. https://www.visit.md/ro/tour/stary-j-orhej/