Food at a air-conditioned restaurant will cost you at least US$3. The cheaper and equally delicious alternative will be coffee-shop style restaurants. The famous 'Pandawa Grup' restaurant offers a wide variety of Nasi Padang dishes at about US$1 per set(it's not exactly like the Nasi Padang in Indonesia where many dishes are laid out before you) I had fried chicken, rice, vegetables and curry for my set. It was fantastic but be prepared to sweat it out. Timor can get very hot in the afternoon. It is along the stretch of road heading towards the Australian Embassy (Fatuhada area). You can see 'Pandawa Grup' on the right (next to the 'Happy Restaurant', a restaurant that serves good, affordable chinese food).

Besides Happy Restaurant, another good affordable restaurant that offers chinese food is Restaurant 88. It's across Sakura Apartments and near Hotel Audian. Bali Sunrise(a restaurant along the beach to the west) offers a wide variety of delicious chinese/indonesian food for about US4. It's a buffet and includes soup, lime juice and water. There's a fast food joint called MyFali in Nicolau Lobato street(near ANZ Bank and City Cafe). You can go there if you miss McDonald's. Along this street, Metro Cafe and Food Start Restaurant offer a buffet of chinese and western food at US$3.50. Yummmy.