RESTAURANT REVIEW : Meaty Balkan Fare : Beograd’s business has fallen dramatically due to the political situation in the former Yugoslavia. But to a disinterested diner, the cooking here offers that rare combination: homey, refined and inexpensive.

Dining out is rarely a political statement, so it seems a pity that business has fallen off at Beograd, a North Hollywood restaurant specializing in the hearty peasant fare of the Balkans.

Beograd is a big, boxy restaurant with a sort of mournful expatriate elegance. Balkan folk music plays softly in the background. The walls and carpet are a subdued shade of gray. Candles flicker on all of the tables, giving the room a worshipful, almost medieval look.

Next to the door is a signed picture of Laker center Vlade Divac, a Serb who has eaten here a few times. The inference may be subtle, but it doesn’t go away. Divac has stated publicly that his relationship with New Jersey Nets star Drazen Petrovic, his teammate on the Yugoslav National Team, has become strained due to events in the former Yugoslavia. Apparently, Petrovic no longer speaks to him.

Their relationship may be the perfect metaphor for why business has fallen off so dramatically. Many onetime patrons are sensitive to the political situation in the Balkans and have decided not to patronize the restaurant.

I cannot speak for people with roots in the former Yugoslavia, but to a disinterested diner, one thing is obvious: Beograd has terrific food. The cooking is that rare combination: homey, refined and inexpensive. The sum total is a place I’d happily eat in a couple of times a week.

The menu is small and comforting. Start off with a dish of pindjur , an off-menu puree of red peppers, olive oil and abundant garlic. Pindjur is a winter dish, the perfect foil for thick, crusty slices of Beograd’s country white bread, which is served hot in a cloth-covered basket. Salty little cubes of Bulgarian feta, a magical touch, come with the puree.

Appetizers such as burek cheese, burek meat and pohovani kackavalj are equally light, hearty and delicious.

Bureks are little pies filled with either meat or cheese. A legacy of the centuries the Balkans spent under Ottoman Turkish rule, they are fashioned from feather-light, butter-soaked filo dough. The meat filling is finely minced, spiced beef, the cheese filling a mousse-like rendering of feta.

Pohovani kackavalj is simply Kashkaval (the j is pronounced like a y ) fried in a light batter. This cheese is less pungent than the kasseri that Greek restaurants fry for saganaki , but more powerful than the mozzarella that the Italians fry. The egg batter comes out a delicate, golden brown, and the cheese obediently dribbles out when the squares are cut.

Beograd is no restaurant for a vegetarian; the main dishes are all centered on meats. Cevapcici (pronounced “chevahp-cheechy”) is one dish you can find in any marketplace from Novi Sad to Skopje--a mixture of ground pork, beef and lamb shaped into sausages, then charcoal-grilled and served on a bed of raw, chopped onion. This is a stand-up sausage that people in the Balkans eat in pubs, while shopping and at home. Try a frosty cold, pleasantly bitter Yugo beer as a complement.

Pljeskavica (“plyeska-veetsa”) is essentially the cevapcici meat mixture plus onions and bell peppers, but it’s shaped like a giant hamburger (it’s probably big enough to share). I prefer raznici (“rahzh-neetsy”), bite-sized chunks of pork tenderloin marinated to tenderness, skewered and grilled. Beograd makes a raznici with pieces of boneless chicken wrapped in bacon before grilling.

Two of the restaurant’s classier entrees pay homage to another of the region’s former colonial powers, Austria-Hungary. Beograd cordon bleu is a wonderfully light, greaseless Wiener schnitzel stuffed with ham and Kashkaval cheese. The veal is particularly tender and the crust is the same light gold as that on the fried cheese appetizer.

Hunter’s pork chops, served in a skillet surrounded by eggy spaetzle ( nockerli ), look and taste Hungarian. These boneless chops are sauteed in wine, garlic and mushrooms, making them possibly the richest dish on the menu and easily the most appealing.

Austria-Hungary surfaces again in the form of the chocolate torte, a multitiered confection bound together with layers of almond paste cake. The dessert is rectangular, with a smooth chocolate filling between floors and a rich glaze on the top tier. This is the only dessert that the restaurant serves, unless you count the muddy, bittersweet Turkish coffee, poured into tiny porcelain cups.

Isn’t it an irony that so many colonial powers have had hands in shaping this cuisine? And isn’t it an irony that you are practically forced to end your meal here on a bittersweet note.

Where and When Location: Beograd, 10530 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Suggested Dishes: Burek (meat or cheese), $3.95; pindjur , $3.95; Beograd cordon bleu , $13.95; hunter’s pork chops, $11.50. Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Price: Dinner for two, $25 to $35. Full bar. Parking lot. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Call: (818) 766-8689.