Why haven’t we spoken about the local markets in Cluj? Most of them have wonderful fruit, friendly sellers, and they are nicely laid out. It is easier to make your way through a fruit market than through a supermarket.
Well, most of the time, we speak to the sellers in Romanian. Sometimes, we hear them speak Hungarian. A few times, there are sellers who speak English. If they are willing to speak to us in their language, we speak to them in their language.
So, I can’t review how well any of them speak English. But I can say the food is excellent.
Avram Iancu market:
mostly non-food, but there are some fruit stands, zaccusca, sometimes honey and other sweet foods. We usually go there for non-food items, so can’t yet make a review on the food there, but we haven’t had any bad experiences with the food there.
They are used to tourists, so many merchants can do transactions in English. (And we sometimes hear the tourists communicating with them in English.) Many still don’t speak fluent English, however, so if you have a friend who speaks Romanian, you might want to bring him along.
Many merchants now take cards.
If you see a price label, then it might be worth buying. Not recommended for shirts however. A long story.
Gheorgheni Market:
This is only open on Thursdays. But there is a lot of excellent food there. We had great bread, cherries, onions, and many other foods from different stands over the past years. And we did go recently, trying a few stands, and all were excellent.
There are a couple of stands that we might not have tried yet, some foods we regularly get elsewhere so we haven’t tried it there yet. Of what we tried, Gheorgheni gets five stars.
The negative might be accessibility. The nearest bus stop is just a depot, and the parking lot becomes the market itself. But it is relatively near a Kaufland and Lidl, and there is a bus route. If you are in the area, and speak enough Romanian to understand prices and buy things, I would recommend going.
We have paid in cash in the past, and haven’t asked whether they take card or not. We didn’t see a lot of card machines.
Marasti Market (Piata Marasti):
This is right by the novelty fruit shop. (Okay, imported fruits, Bacanalia.) The novelty fruit shop is very popular, but the nearby market also has a lot of delicious fruits and vegetables worth trying.
We especially love cooking with the different leafy greens. I don’t know the English names of all the vegetables I bought there, but there are lots of good foods to try.
Other markets
We have visited many other markets in Cluj, but we don’t know them well enough to recommend them, yet.
General advice we have is those who sell trinkets are beginning to take card, and with Revolut more Romanians are able to take some kinds of transfer, but a few farmers still work primarily with cash. I would carry lei in relatively small denominations, like ten lei notes, if possible. (And get this from a bank if possible. There are more cases of counterfeit money in Europe all the time, sadly. You don’t want to be that guy who tries to pay with counterfeits.)
Also, while most are very kind, they are not used to foreigners, so watch for the cultural differences. Stand back and observe other customers first, if possible.
And understand that many do not speak English, or might have learnt a little from TV but aren’t fluent.