Thyme & Fig is a cafe and lunch bar at 75 Walding Street in Palmerston North Central, holding a 4.9 rating on Google. A good neighbourhood cafe lives or dies on two things: the coffee and the cabinet. In New Zealand the flat white is the usual yardstick, and a well-made one with properly textured milk tells you the barista knows the craft. Cabinet food is first-come, best-early — filled rolls, salads and slices thin out as the midday rush builds, so regulars tend to arrive before noon or slip in after one. It also pays to ask what was made fresh that day, since the answer is often better than anything on the printed menu. On Walding Street in the city centre, Thyme & Fig is well placed for a coffee stop or a proper working lunch in central Palmerston North.