October 11, 2025 • 11 mins
Where to eat and drink in Dili and around Timor-Leste.
More information - https://exploringtimor.com/plan-your-journey-to-timor-leste/#foodanddrink and https://diliguide.com/eat-drink/
Website - www.exploringtimor.com
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@exploringtimor
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jonty (00:06):
Bondi.
Welcome to exploring Tim Este,the podcast that talks about
Southeast Asia's best kepttravel secret.
I'm your host Jte, and I'llshare firsthand insights, expert
interviews and practical traveltips.
Whether you're a traveler, acultural lover, or just curious
about places rarely covered inthe mainstream.
You're in the right place.
Let's explore two more.
Less day.
(00:31):
today's episode is about foodand drink in Timor-Leste.
I'll start with a bit of anintroduction and then I'll go
into more detail around whereyou can eat and drink in Dilly
is that has by far the mostoptions in Timor-Leste.
And then I'll talk about some ofmy favorite places to be outside
of dli.
Timor essay isn't world famousfor its cuisine, although its
coffee is, but you candefinitely eat well here and
(00:54):
portion sizes tend to begenerous as you'd imagine in
Southeast Asia.
Rice is a staple, but there arealso some interesting Portuguese
influences and fusionrestaurants, a typical meal for
Diurese will consist of rice anda variety of vegetables possibly
with fish or chicken.
Beef and pork are generallyreserved for celebrations'cause
the animals are of considerablevalue.
(01:15):
Corn is a major part of the dietand it's eaten in a variety of
dishes.
Most food follows Indonesianinfluence and dishes such as
Nazi Garrin or Merin are readilyavailable.
Dili offers plenty of choices interms of restaurants and
cuisines.
Prices can range from$2 to$20.
For a meal, and there are cafeswhich are open all day and
(01:37):
restaurants and bars, which areopen until late at night.
Now, obviously take the usualprecautions that you would when
eating in a developing countryby sticking wherever possible to
cook foods.
Salads are generally fine inhigh end establishments, but
there are no guarantees.
And in terms of tap water,that's not drinkable in Timor,
so stick with bottled waterthroughout your visit or bring a
good water filter andpurification tablets.
(01:59):
In terms of drinks, beer isuniversally available though
it's usually only the localbeer, a Bing tongue or maybe
Heineken, and there's generallya range of soft drinks and fruit
drinks available.
Note that fruit drinks areusually loaded with additional
sugar unless you ask for nosugar European and Australian
wines are easy to get hold of,but expensive and the range is
(02:19):
limited.
Soft drinks, bottled water andcan.
Beer are sold at markets, shops,and by street vendors.
The true Timur drink is coffeeand as cafe in Deton, and they
prefer it strong and black, andit's usually herd hot and sweet
with plenty of sugar.
Espresso coffees are availablein many of the Western style
cafes.
In the larger towns there are arange of snack barrows called
(02:42):
ONGs, which is an Indonesianterm.
We can get a selection of ricecooked in palm leaf parcels,
barbecue chicken, fish, or cornfrom between two to four US
dollars.
And our local favorite pastimeis to sit and eat on the beach
watching the sunset.
So if you visit exploring timorless day.com there is a section
under plan called Food andDrink.
(03:03):
And on that I've got a couple ofmaps, which I'll refer to in
this podcast, which if you wantmore information on these places
is the best place to go.
I have a diagram with six areasaround Dili where most of the
restaurants and cafes are based.
And further down there is aGoogle Map, which has places to
eat and drink acrossTimor-Leste.
I'd also highly recommend awebsite called Dilly Guide,
(03:26):
which was set up by an expat,and that has probably the best
information about where to eatand drink in Dilly and other
places in Timor, but primarilydilly huge range of restaurants
and cafes and bars withdescriptions about each of
those.
So that's the place I'd reallyrecommend to go to for a deep
dive.
starting with in Dili those sixareas.
They go from the west through tothe east.
(03:48):
Starting with the Timor Plazaarea.
And Timor Plaza is the onlyshopping center in Timor-Leste
that is a place to get reliablydecent air conditioning.
It's quite a break from the heatand craziness.
It's definitely not a.
Malaysian or Indonesian stylelarge mall.
It is pretty small in comparisonwith those, but it does offer a
(04:08):
bit of a respite from some ofthe craziness of Dili.
So just to highlight some of theplaces.
And this is not completelycomprehensive.
There are many more places onthe website that you can look
out for other options to eat.
These are just some of the onesthat I've particularly enjoyed.
But this will give youhighlights of some of the places
that I enjoyed whilst I wasliving in Dilly for a year.
So back to the Timor Plaza area.
(04:29):
There's the Agora Food Studio,which is outside of the main
mall.
You walk to the back of the carpark area by one of the
accommodation blocks, and thatoffers quite authentic Timor's
Fusion food.
It's well regarded and it's avery kind of pleasant place to
eat.
Lina Corner is a section of theuh, Lina Supermarket and that
has a quite good load of cafe.
(04:52):
Bistro kind of area where youcan get food from the counter or
they can get food on ordering.
The top floor of Timor Plaza hasthe Panorama restaurant, which I
never ate at, I had drinks at,but that has good views across
the city.
Finally the Timor Plaza FoodCourt is a pretty reasonable
Asian style food court withTimorese and Indonesian outlets
(05:13):
primarily.
So there's quite a few things todo around Timor Plaza heading
east from Timor Plaza to alongby the waterfront.
You have the car Tu area, and afew places here include
Castaways.
That is an expat haunt.
It's a kind of AustralianWestern star.
It's very popular with expats,looking for an Aussie bar, with
nice waterfront views there isone of two Haha cafes.
(05:36):
So the original Haha cafe isthere, and the other one, haha,
cafe Blue is in Farrell.
Those are some of my favoriteplaces to go to particularly,
they do amazing smoothies.
I really recommend those.
And then they both do food, buthaha, cafe Blue, the one in
Farel probably has a better menuselection to choose from.
This is also where letter FajaSpecialty Coffee roaster is
(05:59):
based.
And that's one of the best knownplaces to get coffee in TIMOs
through Letter Faja and thathave a good cafe there.
And there's also Naris numberone Korean restaurant.
And there is a surprisinglylarge Korean contingent in dli.
And that's regarded as one ofthe best places to get authentic
Korean food in Timor-Leste.
So heading east of the Farraarea, this is where the Mottiel
church is quite a prominentlandmark on the waterfront and
(06:22):
the Dilly Lighthouse and it'shome to a number of embassies in
the area and there's some goodplaces to eat.
Highly recommend is Uma Val,which is very much a Tim's kind
of focused food.
I really like the Taha Minha,which is Indonesian Bangladeshi
food.
Punks is a bit of a institutionas a nightclub bar, and there's
(06:43):
also a few other cafes in thearea, including the Haha, cafe
Blue I mentioned before.
Moving slightly further to theEast in Coal Mirror.
This is really the heart of oldDilly.
Probably the best known placehere is Delicious Timor.
So a bit of a pun on Delicious.
That's just across the road fromthe Port and that is an
excellent place for local fusionfood.
Very popular.
(07:03):
Close by is Hotel Timor, whichhas good air conditioning, has a
much more international feel.
You can escape some of the noiseand heat of dili in there.
Close by is the Patel Complex.
This is a Portuguesesupermarket, but it also has a
very good cafe attached, whichis the best place to get
Portuguese tarts.
And they've got a nice outsideseating area and in that complex
(07:25):
of small shops and areas,there's also the Everest Coffee
House, which is the best knownNepalese placed eat in Dili.
Slightly further west of that isLaier and there's quite a few
places to eat here.
The Great Wall is highlyrecommended for those looking
for Chinese food anyway, lookingfor ice cream, I would highly
regard mehi.
(07:45):
That is the best ice cream thatI've found in Timor-Leste.
It's three US dollars for twoscoops, and they vary the
flavors quite a lot and they'reoften based on locally available
fruits, so mangoes andpineapples and passion fruits.
Yeah, it's a really deliciousplace to eat ice cream.
New lilies is a very popularspot with Tim, particularly at
lunchtime.
And it's pretty affordable.
(08:06):
And TCI is one of the best knownPortuguese restaurants in Dili
and finally to the far East.
So this is heading out towardsChristo Ray.
There are a number of places toeat along by the waterfront.
Some of the best known ones areBeachside and Casbar, both of
which you can sit on the beach,have a coconut.
Enjoy the view and eat some goodfood.
(08:28):
The menu is more international,Indonesian style.
They're very popular withvisitors and expats.
I particularly like littlepatio, which is probably one of
the best Thai places in Dili andhas a nice setting on the
waterfront I've only mentionedmaybe a third of the places that
you can eat there, so there'smore options available.
Now heading out of your optionsget a lot fewer in number.
(08:52):
But these are some of the placesthat I've particularly enjoyed
on my travels around.
I'll start from the west of thecountry and Head East.
Start with babbo.
Fort Hotel does very good foodand it's a beautiful setting up
in the mountains, looking outwith fantastic views towards the
coast and just a very relaxingplace to spend some time and
have a good meal.
Another good spot in Bobo is theD two Uma Cafe, which is in aba.
(09:17):
So if you drive to Babbo, thisis on the way from Dili it
offers good food, good drinks,and the setting is quite
beautiful right by extensiverice fields.
So really recommend having astop there if you are traveling
through.
If you're heading into, there'sAlmar Dmar Resort and Lahuta
Beach Escape, and they bothoffer very good places to eat
(09:38):
and drink in a beach sidesetting.
In am mirror there's Gecko Cafe,which is in ko, which is just as
you cross the border into Amiraand they have some quite nice
food if you're heading uptowards ale into the mountains.
Projector is a good place forlunch, but as I mentioned
earlier, you should call aheadto make sure that they're
expecting you in Moisi.
The Sarah Guest House has prettygood food and a very well
(10:00):
located restaurant area on thetop floor with great views.
Looking out across the mountainsof Moi area.
Heading East outta Dili, justpast the large military base is
the corner store network, andthat's a really nice place to
stop at.
It's quite funky made out ofshipping containers.
And then further on at$1 Beachthere's a branch of the popular
(10:23):
Dilly establishment.
Delicious.
Just opposite$1 Beach, which isa great place to stop.
In Tutu Cafe.
Bo Alley is a popular place tostop'cause it has amazing views
of the landscape.
Doesn't really have much food,but it's a good place to stop
for a drink.
In Beauo, as you'd expect fromthe second city.
There are a few more options.
My favorite is actually slightlyout of Auo, so halfway between
(10:43):
Central Beauo and WaterburyBeach.
You go past the dad, Terra Agroecological farm.
This is a beautiful setting inthe bush.
It's very much organic,homegrown food.
They have a lot of the food thatthey serve.
There, you'll see being grownnearby really relaxing place to
stay.
And then in BAU itself, there'sa couple of restaurants,
restaurant Amelia and RestaurantVictoria which are on the main
(11:05):
road, which are pretty goodplaces to eat.
And then the Prasada Dubal alsohas quite a upmarket restaurant.
And then final spot just headingout to Far East into loud term
catty guest house in com has agood reputation, so if that's
given you a bit of a feel forsome of the places you can eat
and drink in Timor less day.
Thank you so much for listening to exploring Timor
(11:26):
Less Day.
If you've enjoyed today'sepisode, please consider leaving
a rating or review.
It really helps more peoplediscover the show.
If you have any questions orfeedback, I'd love to hear from
you.
Drop me an email at exploringTimor lessDay@gmail.com.
Until next time, or Bodo ADEs.
Bondi.
Welcome to exploring Tim Este,the podcast that talks about
Southeast Asia's best kepttravel secret.
I'm your host Jte, and I'llshare firsthand insights, expert
interviews and practical traveltips.
Whether you're a traveler, acultural lover, or just curious
about places rarely covered inthe mainstream.
You're in the right place.
Let's explore two more.
Less day.
(00:31):
today's episode is about foodand drink in Timor-Leste.
I'll start with a bit of anintroduction and then I'll go
into more detail around whereyou can eat and drink in Dilly
is that has by far the mostoptions in Timor-Leste.
And then I'll talk about some ofmy favorite places to be outside
of dli.
Timor essay isn't world famousfor its cuisine, although its
coffee is, but you candefinitely eat well here and
(00:54):
portion sizes tend to begenerous as you'd imagine in
Southeast Asia.
Rice is a staple, but there arealso some interesting Portuguese
influences and fusionrestaurants, a typical meal for
Diurese will consist of rice anda variety of vegetables possibly
with fish or chicken.
Beef and pork are generallyreserved for celebrations'cause
the animals are of considerablevalue.
(01:15):
Corn is a major part of the dietand it's eaten in a variety of
dishes.
Most food follows Indonesianinfluence and dishes such as
Nazi Garrin or Merin are readilyavailable.
Dili offers plenty of choices interms of restaurants and
cuisines.
Prices can range from$2 to$20.
For a meal, and there are cafeswhich are open all day and
(01:37):
restaurants and bars, which areopen until late at night.
Now, obviously take the usualprecautions that you would when
eating in a developing countryby sticking wherever possible to
cook foods.
Salads are generally fine inhigh end establishments, but
there are no guarantees.
And in terms of tap water,that's not drinkable in Timor,
so stick with bottled waterthroughout your visit or bring a
good water filter andpurification tablets.
(01:59):
In terms of drinks, beer isuniversally available though
it's usually only the localbeer, a Bing tongue or maybe
Heineken, and there's generallya range of soft drinks and fruit
drinks available.
Note that fruit drinks areusually loaded with additional
sugar unless you ask for nosugar European and Australian
wines are easy to get hold of,but expensive and the range is
(02:19):
limited.
Soft drinks, bottled water andcan.
Beer are sold at markets, shops,and by street vendors.
The true Timur drink is coffeeand as cafe in Deton, and they
prefer it strong and black, andit's usually herd hot and sweet
with plenty of sugar.
Espresso coffees are availablein many of the Western style
cafes.
In the larger towns there are arange of snack barrows called
(02:42):
ONGs, which is an Indonesianterm.
We can get a selection of ricecooked in palm leaf parcels,
barbecue chicken, fish, or cornfrom between two to four US
dollars.
And our local favorite pastimeis to sit and eat on the beach
watching the sunset.
So if you visit exploring timorless day.com there is a section
under plan called Food andDrink.
(03:03):
And on that I've got a couple ofmaps, which I'll refer to in
this podcast, which if you wantmore information on these places
is the best place to go.
I have a diagram with six areasaround Dili where most of the
restaurants and cafes are based.
And further down there is aGoogle Map, which has places to
eat and drink acrossTimor-Leste.
I'd also highly recommend awebsite called Dilly Guide,
(03:26):
which was set up by an expat,and that has probably the best
information about where to eatand drink in Dilly and other
places in Timor, but primarilydilly huge range of restaurants
and cafes and bars withdescriptions about each of
those.
So that's the place I'd reallyrecommend to go to for a deep
dive.
starting with in Dili those sixareas.
They go from the west through tothe east.
(03:48):
Starting with the Timor Plazaarea.
And Timor Plaza is the onlyshopping center in Timor-Leste
that is a place to get reliablydecent air conditioning.
It's quite a break from the heatand craziness.
It's definitely not a.
Malaysian or Indonesian stylelarge mall.
It is pretty small in comparisonwith those, but it does offer a
(04:08):
bit of a respite from some ofthe craziness of Dili.
So just to highlight some of theplaces.
And this is not completelycomprehensive.
There are many more places onthe website that you can look
out for other options to eat.
These are just some of the onesthat I've particularly enjoyed.
But this will give youhighlights of some of the places
that I enjoyed whilst I wasliving in Dilly for a year.
So back to the Timor Plaza area.
(04:29):
There's the Agora Food Studio,which is outside of the main
mall.
You walk to the back of the carpark area by one of the
accommodation blocks, and thatoffers quite authentic Timor's
Fusion food.
It's well regarded and it's avery kind of pleasant place to
eat.
Lina Corner is a section of theuh, Lina Supermarket and that
has a quite good load of cafe.
(04:52):
Bistro kind of area where youcan get food from the counter or
they can get food on ordering.
The top floor of Timor Plaza hasthe Panorama restaurant, which I
never ate at, I had drinks at,but that has good views across
the city.
Finally the Timor Plaza FoodCourt is a pretty reasonable
Asian style food court withTimorese and Indonesian outlets
(05:13):
primarily.
So there's quite a few things todo around Timor Plaza heading
east from Timor Plaza to alongby the waterfront.
You have the car Tu area, and afew places here include
Castaways.
That is an expat haunt.
It's a kind of AustralianWestern star.
It's very popular with expats,looking for an Aussie bar, with
nice waterfront views there isone of two Haha cafes.
(05:36):
So the original Haha cafe isthere, and the other one, haha,
cafe Blue is in Farrell.
Those are some of my favoriteplaces to go to particularly,
they do amazing smoothies.
I really recommend those.
And then they both do food, buthaha, cafe Blue, the one in
Farel probably has a better menuselection to choose from.
This is also where letter FajaSpecialty Coffee roaster is
(05:59):
based.
And that's one of the best knownplaces to get coffee in TIMOs
through Letter Faja and thathave a good cafe there.
And there's also Naris numberone Korean restaurant.
And there is a surprisinglylarge Korean contingent in dli.
And that's regarded as one ofthe best places to get authentic
Korean food in Timor-Leste.
So heading east of the Farraarea, this is where the Mottiel
church is quite a prominentlandmark on the waterfront and
(06:22):
the Dilly Lighthouse and it'shome to a number of embassies in
the area and there's some goodplaces to eat.
Highly recommend is Uma Val,which is very much a Tim's kind
of focused food.
I really like the Taha Minha,which is Indonesian Bangladeshi
food.
Punks is a bit of a institutionas a nightclub bar, and there's
(06:43):
also a few other cafes in thearea, including the Haha, cafe
Blue I mentioned before.
Moving slightly further to theEast in Coal Mirror.
This is really the heart of oldDilly.
Probably the best known placehere is Delicious Timor.
So a bit of a pun on Delicious.
That's just across the road fromthe Port and that is an
excellent place for local fusionfood.
Very popular.
(07:03):
Close by is Hotel Timor, whichhas good air conditioning, has a
much more international feel.
You can escape some of the noiseand heat of dili in there.
Close by is the Patel Complex.
This is a Portuguesesupermarket, but it also has a
very good cafe attached, whichis the best place to get
Portuguese tarts.
And they've got a nice outsideseating area and in that complex
(07:25):
of small shops and areas,there's also the Everest Coffee
House, which is the best knownNepalese placed eat in Dili.
Slightly further west of that isLaier and there's quite a few
places to eat here.
The Great Wall is highlyrecommended for those looking
for Chinese food anyway, lookingfor ice cream, I would highly
regard mehi.
(07:45):
That is the best ice cream thatI've found in Timor-Leste.
It's three US dollars for twoscoops, and they vary the
flavors quite a lot and they'reoften based on locally available
fruits, so mangoes andpineapples and passion fruits.
Yeah, it's a really deliciousplace to eat ice cream.
New lilies is a very popularspot with Tim, particularly at
lunchtime.
And it's pretty affordable.
(08:06):
And TCI is one of the best knownPortuguese restaurants in Dili
and finally to the far East.
So this is heading out towardsChristo Ray.
There are a number of places toeat along by the waterfront.
Some of the best known ones areBeachside and Casbar, both of
which you can sit on the beach,have a coconut.
Enjoy the view and eat some goodfood.
(08:28):
The menu is more international,Indonesian style.
They're very popular withvisitors and expats.
I particularly like littlepatio, which is probably one of
the best Thai places in Dili andhas a nice setting on the
waterfront I've only mentionedmaybe a third of the places that
you can eat there, so there'smore options available.
Now heading out of your optionsget a lot fewer in number.
(08:52):
But these are some of the placesthat I've particularly enjoyed
on my travels around.
I'll start from the west of thecountry and Head East.
Start with babbo.
Fort Hotel does very good foodand it's a beautiful setting up
in the mountains, looking outwith fantastic views towards the
coast and just a very relaxingplace to spend some time and
have a good meal.
Another good spot in Bobo is theD two Uma Cafe, which is in aba.
(09:17):
So if you drive to Babbo, thisis on the way from Dili it
offers good food, good drinks,and the setting is quite
beautiful right by extensiverice fields.
So really recommend having astop there if you are traveling
through.
If you're heading into, there'sAlmar Dmar Resort and Lahuta
Beach Escape, and they bothoffer very good places to eat
(09:38):
and drink in a beach sidesetting.
In am mirror there's Gecko Cafe,which is in ko, which is just as
you cross the border into Amiraand they have some quite nice
food if you're heading uptowards ale into the mountains.
Projector is a good place forlunch, but as I mentioned
earlier, you should call aheadto make sure that they're
expecting you in Moisi.
The Sarah Guest House has prettygood food and a very well
(10:00):
located restaurant area on thetop floor with great views.
Looking out across the mountainsof Moi area.
Heading East outta Dili, justpast the large military base is
the corner store network, andthat's a really nice place to
stop at.
It's quite funky made out ofshipping containers.
And then further on at$1 Beachthere's a branch of the popular
(10:23):
Dilly establishment.
Delicious.
Just opposite$1 Beach, which isa great place to stop.
In Tutu Cafe.
Bo Alley is a popular place tostop'cause it has amazing views
of the landscape.
Doesn't really have much food,but it's a good place to stop
for a drink.
In Beauo, as you'd expect fromthe second city.
There are a few more options.
My favorite is actually slightlyout of Auo, so halfway between
(10:43):
Central Beauo and WaterburyBeach.
You go past the dad, Terra Agroecological farm.
This is a beautiful setting inthe bush.
It's very much organic,homegrown food.
They have a lot of the food thatthey serve.
There, you'll see being grownnearby really relaxing place to
stay.
And then in BAU itself, there'sa couple of restaurants,
restaurant Amelia and RestaurantVictoria which are on the main
(11:05):
road, which are pretty goodplaces to eat.
And then the Prasada Dubal alsohas quite a upmarket restaurant.
And then final spot just headingout to Far East into loud term
catty guest house in com has agood reputation, so if that's
given you a bit of a feel forsome of the places you can eat
and drink in Timor less day.
Thank you so much for listening to exploring Timor
(11:26):
Less Day.
If you've enjoyed today'sepisode, please consider leaving
a rating or review.
It really helps more peoplediscover the show.
If you have any questions orfeedback, I'd love to hear from
you.
Drop me an email at exploringTimor lessDay@gmail.com.
Until next time, or Bodo ADEs.
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