Andina Cafe and Coffee Roastery.

We've been impressed with the quality and variety of coffee blended and roasted at Andina Care. The proprietor, who hails from Colombia, is genuinely knowledgeable and engaging on the subject of coffee beans, and his staff does a good job with all the various yuppie coffee concoctions. The decor is relaxing and casual, the smells are great, and it's a nice place to listen to music in the evenings.

Unfortunately, we can't recommend the downtown River Market restaurant as a business lunch destination, though Andina has been offering a food menu for several months now.

The first problem with eating at Andina is the speed - or lack thereof - of service. Two lunch parties experienced the same problem over a span of two weeks: it takes a while for waiters to notice you, and when they do, they still don't show up at the table very often. Food preparation is extremely slow, and we're not talking about challenging dishes here. We suspect the kitchen is terribly undersized.

One luncher spent an hour-and-at-half at Andina just to eat a hamburger. Later on, it took another set of diners a full hour to turn over their table, though they ordered simple grilled sandwiches.

The second problem is that the place is poorly laid out. If you sit at the wrong table, waiters will stumble over you trying to serve other tables.

The third problem is that the concept behind the food menu is weak. The gimmick is that several of the menu items are prepared with coffee, but the menu rightly informs diners that they might not even taste the coffee in those dishes. Our question: Then what's the point? Would you put tomatoes in chocolate cake if you couldn't really taste them?

We tried one of the coffee-boosted items - the grilled chicken sandwich. Apparently, coffee was incorporated in the marinade for the chicken. True, the chicken did have a sort of smoky, roasted flavor, but the taste might have just as easily, and more cheaply, come from hickory chips. In the end, the coffee angle was more hype than substance. Couple that disappointment with the fact that the sandwich did not come as advertised - the cheese was missing.

Another lunch item, the grilled veggie sandwich, struck us as a rip-off. At the astronomical price of around $6.50, we received fries, a bun with grilled portabella mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini and the like, and a little side dish of guacamole.

The veggies were light and delicious, but skimpily portioned and totally overpowered by the bun. The fries, fresh-cut, were great. The guacamole was a major disappointment. We'd had this guac before; it is supposed to be a more fiery version of the Mexican favorite, spiced with hot pepper. This time, though, there was no hint of pepper at all.

Quality control is lacking. To wit, another example: One diner, during an earlier visit, ordered a cheeseburger without mayonnaise. When it arrived, it came with the lettuce and tomato on the side, and a naked, old, dry burger laying on the bun without cheese, mustard or ketchup. This diner was shocked, because an earlier trip had rewarded him with one of the best burgers he had ever eaten in Little Rock.

We also ordered a cafe mocha with our meal. Had we ordered it at the counter, we probably would have received it in half the time. Its seems that Andina can't get its stuff together between people ordering coffee drinks at the counter and lunch items at the tables. The staff is confused. It even takes a long time to pay your check at the counter, because you sometimes have to wait behind people who are having cappuccinos made.

A tip: the one thing we've had over the past few months at Andina that didn't disappoint is the chicken fingers, featured on the children's menu. They are freshly breaded, tender, and accompanied by a great honey-mustard sauce.

The timing of this review may be poor, for Andina's is preparing to change its menu. Unless the prices go down, and the waits are shortened, though, it will be the same song, second verse. 5 waiters-Perfection; 4-Excellent; 3-Good; 2-Fair; 1-Poor