Chișinău is better once you stop trying to complete it. The good moments sit between the obvious stops: a courtyard, a long table, or the second place somebody local sends you.
Friday evening
Check in, walk rather than drive, and begin with dinner in Centru. Do not try to see the city tonight. Choose one good table, then let somebody point you towards a glass of local wine nearby.
Do less. Notice more. Keep lunch long.
Saturday, slowly
Start with breakfast and coffee at Sincer, then take the long route through the centre. Look up: the interesting Chișinău is faded villas, formal boulevards, late-Soviet modernism and a few contemporary rooms inserted in between.
Sunday outside
Walk Valea Morilor before the city gets busy. If the flight is late, this is the day for whatever you thought you had to squeeze into Saturday.