Squatter's guide to bars and restaurants. Dedicated to keeping seasoned hashers topped up with food and drink during their stay in Dili. Dili has restaurants where you can get a drink and bars where you can get food. There is cross-over so don't get too carried away.
Bars you will visit courtesy of the 500th Run
Dili Beach Hotel - one of the premier sports bars in town with 1st floor views overlooking the sea, excellent food and oven-fired pizzas
Caz Bar - down at Cristo Riviera Rei, perhaps the most popular of the bar/restaurants down at Dili's beach chill-out zone. Often has dancing and beach parties. I think this is the place for prawns.
Other Bars where Dili hashers invariably visit regularly
Dili Club - one of Dili's institutions, great food (Western and Thai), who hasn't fallen over here ?
Ocean View Hotel - Cristo Rei aside, the spot for drinks at sunset on the ocean deck. Dili hashers often seen here solving the world's problems ... but not Dili's. Watch out for seafood specials sourced form the local villagers.
One More Bar - one of the premier sports bars with big screens. Often roaring on a Friday night with a band.
Castaways Bar - operated right through the crisis in 2006 and now settled in as one of the bars to visit for a quiet drink and views over the water.
Venture Inn - a lesser but not uncommon hasher destination. Cocktails on the deck near the pool has been done a few times.
Esplanada Hotel - more occasional visit usually to seal the deal in attempted sexual congress. Do not try this around the pool.
Fine Dining *
Nautilus Restaurant - an excellent dining experience right on the beachfront. This one shows that Dili can do it just as good as the best in Bali.
Discovery Inn - curl the mo for this one. A Dili restaurant with a wine list and a reasonable a la carte menu. Top up at the upstairs bar before you go in.
Vasco da Gamas - one of Dili's institutions that has been around since Moses was rowing around the reed beds ... or at least since independence. This is the Portuguese dining experience for those leaning that way.
Keci Keca - the restaurant attached to the Cafe Brasil. Gets my vote in the decor stakes and the little back room is a winner for a small group.
* OK, we are not talking about a Michelin 3 star here. We are talking a good well-appointed restaurant with table settings, reasonable decor, a wine list and a decent menu. One where you could wear glad rags to without feeling like a burke.
Other Places
Really there are tons of other places. The ones mentioned above will cater for the westerner pretty well with both language and food. There are tons of others which target Indonesian, Indian/Pakistani/Sri Lankan, Chinese and Filipino diners but (sorry) no Greek.
Tony's Kebab Club - near the ANZ Bank, is Dili's premier (ie only) Turkish food outlet. Tony is really Turkish and he lets you know it (when you see the decor etc.). The food really is good.
Hotel Timor - am not a fan of the hotel restaurant but the Cafe is a popular meeting spot. This is the place for "pasteis de nata" (ie Portuguese-style custard tarts) with coffee.
Sun Restaurant - at the front of the Dili Backpackers. Hashers have been known to guts themselves with this reasonable Indian fare. Leaving lunch at sunset a speciality. If you visit, at least go around the back and check out The Smokehouse Bar.
Little Pattaya - seems to be the most popular of the many Thai restaurants in town now that TukTuk has left the scene.
More coming.
