RESTAURANT REVIEW : Marrakesh Fit for a Feast : For Moroccan food, the Studio City branch does nearly everything right at mostly reasonable prices.

Moroccan food is the most purely sensuous I know. Traditionally you get to eat a great many of the dishes with your fingers--the pungent salads, the fluffy grains, the slowly cooked stews redolent of cumin and ginger. Some of the heartier roasted meats drip with spiced honey, which sticks defiantly to your fingers. It’s a shame the San Fernando Valley neglects a cuisine so purely enjoyable.

Marrakesh has long been our place to get a proper Moroccan feast, the multi-course format that has become synonymous with this cuisine in the United States. Owner Ali Rabbani owns five Marrakesh restaurants, in Newport Beach, San Diego, La Jolla and even, appropriately, Palm Desert, as well as in Studio City. When I feasted at the Newport Beach branch some time back, the restaurant was full; not so here in the Valley.

On weeknights, the Studio City Marrakesh often appears painfully empty, despite doing nearly everything right at mostly reasonable prices. How slow are things? Last week a friend of mine walked in and inquired about his reservation, asking an employee whether anyone had been there to meet him. “Are you sure you aren’t supposed to be at Pinot, next door?” came the reply. That’s how slow things have been here.

I can’t understand why. I’ve just had two delightful dinners at Marrakesh, both of them relaxing, well-paced and devilishly filling. The place itself is delightful; you enter through an opulent bar, a sort of North African interpretation of a Vegas lounge.

I wouldn’t dally for drinks here, though, unless you don’t mind paying $5 for a rum and tonic.

When I arrived, my friend was just sinking down onto an embroidered cushion. A tall waiter in a red fez motioned us to our sofa. It turns out you don’t sit on the floor here, as in some Moroccan restaurants. Instead there are dozens of beautiful velvet sofas and artfully stitched cushions.

The round tables you’re served on are inlaid wooden objets d’art , set low to the floor. The restaurant dispenses with the faux-tent ceiling--that trademark of many Moroccan restaurants.

The waiter recites a verbal menu, offering a choice of five-, seven- or eight-course dinners. The seven-course meal adds soup and fruit to the menu of the five-course. For just $1 extra, you can get the eighth course, qudban (succulent, spice-crusted lamb shish kebab); it’s well worth it.

After the ritual hand-washing, in water poured for you by the waiter, comes the first course in the feast, a rich vegetable broth called harira . This harira isn’t a lamb-based broth like the ones most California Moroccan restaurants serve but a delicious lentil, garbanzo and pureed pepper soup with the hearty tang of ginger.

Whatever meal you’ve ordered, you get a plate of Moroccan salads: exceptional pureed eggplant and bell pepper; aromatically spiced carrot; light cucumber and tomato, perfumed with fresh dill. A basket of steaming bread studded with sesame seed and anise is also brought out. The bread is irresistible when fresh, but unfortunately, ours was a little burnt around the edges.

Then comes the delight that fanciers of this cuisine so eagerly anticipate: bestila . This is a piping-hot phyllo pastry pie, stuffed with chicken, eggs and almonds, lightly dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Marrakesh makes a dense, utterly overwhelming version, so tempting you’ll probably burn your fingers in your eagerness to eat it. This may be the best bestila in Southern California.

About now a belly dancer is likely to appear, as the music swells to an almost painful level. Whether you like belly dancing, the qudban --crusted with coriander, ginger, cumin and garlic--is juicy and tender.

After this wonderful shish kebab, the main courses feel like an afterthought: rabbit with prunes, quail on a bed of saffron rice, marinated chicken with pickled lemons--even, if you wish, a piece of halibut in spicy tomato sauce, which is not up to the same level as the other entrees. The rabbit is especially tender and juicy; the tasty, simply roasted quail rates a close second.

Dessert includes a triangle of walnut baklava and mint tea poured from a height of around six and one half feet (the waiter holds the pitcher over his head to pour). Austere diners, take note. With the five-course feast, you only get salads, bestila , an entree, baklava and the mint tea. So you see, even the simple is opulent, in Marrakesh.

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WHERE AND WHEN

Location: Marrakesh, 13003 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. Suggested Dishes: Five-course feast, $16.50; seven-course feast, $18.50; eight-course feast, $22. Hours: Dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Price: Dinner for two, $37 to $48. Full bar. Valet parking. All major cards. Call: (818) 788-6354.