Dili eats like a meeting of currents — Portuguese stews, Indonesian rice plates, Chinese noodles, Australian cafe food, and a few genuinely Timorese dishes (notably ikan saboko, fish wrapped in palm leaves and grilled, and tukir, slow-cooked buffalo with tamarind). The international NGO presence keeps a small but good restaurant scene alive, mostly concentrated along the seafront and in Pantai Kelapa.
Prices are higher than you might expect for the region; a sit-down dinner with drinks runs USD 15–25 a head. The US dollar is the official currency.