AT THE PERFECT PACE EMMANUEL TAKES ITS TIME TO SERVE IT UP DELICIOUSLY.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

If you're in a big hurry at dinnertime, the new Emmanuel in Studio City is not for you.

Replacing Perroche, this is the first solo-owned restaurant of chef-proprietor Thomas Munoz, who left Joe-Joe's in Sherman Oaks in July.

Munoz is an exacting chef. He may not work fast, but you don't resent it because this is obviously a place for leisurely evening meal-taking.

He cooks down-to-earth foods made with top-quality ingredients very carefully, delivers them in due time attractively but in sensible arrangements rather than with exaggerated artistic flair.

It certainly pays to be patient at Emmanuel. You'll always receive a plate with hot food on it if it's supposed to be that way. In fact, very often, the waiter will caution you that both the plate and its contents are hot.

This is a welcome gesture, considering that so many plates in otherwise decent restaurants come to the table tepid.

And you get what the menu says. I'm sure that if there were any changes, the waiter would be instructed to inform patrons in advance.

Emmanuel is a relaxing, thoroughly enjoyable dinner house. Though small, its single dining room appears larger because one wall is almost entirely mirrored.

A clever array of kitelike, triangular-shaped, blue-toned hangings of a distinctive fabric grace the opposite wall. French doors that open in good weather onto a narrow sidewalk patio area dominate the front-entry side and in the rear is a small bar and adjacent wine cabinet.

A compact menu of 11 starters, eight entrees and two prix-fixe meals denote reasonable pricing - $5 to $9 for beginnings, $15 to $19 for main courses, $5 for desserts and two four-course, table d'hote dinners at $30 and $38.

Adding to the regular selection is the customer-friendly policy of allowing any item from the prix-fixe offerings to be ordered a la carte at a moderate tariff.

So it was a nice surprise one evening to find out that the roasted venison dish, an entree option from the $38 complete meal, was tabbed at a reasonable $17.

The purplish brown-tinged medallions of tender, juicy venison arrive neatly angled on several fluffy, mushroom-stuffed ravioli with a scattering of frisee and a smooth, rich red wine and garlic sauce.

Portions, by the way, appear neither large nor small, but essentially adequate.

Dinner can start with a fine combination of perfectly seared scallops tossed in a Japanese-inspired soy-vinegar ponzu dressing with Asian- accented greens and crunchy pieces of rarely found grilled salsify ($9).

Soup fanciers will, as a rule, discover an excellent puree-style soup du jour ($5), usually vegetable-based, such as roasted red pepper or pumpkin.

I recommend tasting it first before accepting the waiter's offer of freshly ground black pepper, simply because chef Munoz tends to give his rather intensely flavored soups a touch of peppery or gingery spiciness. You may not want to get a double kick of spicy heat.

One of the better salad starters here is available as a first course on the $30, four-course dinner. The chef warms up a mesclun-type salad with bits of lightly smoked bacon, adds shallots and goat cheese, and tosses it effectively with a sherry dressing ($5 a la carte).

The alternative is the house mix of baby greens with roasted red onions and jicama in a balsamic vinaigrette (also $5).

That particular prix-fixe dinner features a superb whitefish plate featuring a crisp-skinned filet of the soft fish perched provocatively on a bed of moist, lemon-scented spinach enhanced with jutting spears of crunchy grilled asparagus ($16 a la carte).

As part of the more expensive prix-fixe, Munoz sears a small portion of expensive foie gras, amplifying the warm goose-liver pate with cooked pears and a sweet-spicy honey and black pepper sauce ($9 a la carte).

Entree triumphs include crisp-skinned chicken ($15) on a nifty assortment of green fava beans, white pearl onions and purple beets, and a delicious pork chop ($16) leaning on a small mound of sweet potato cubes and glazed apple mini-slices plus a reduction of the natural pork juices flavored with garlic and sage.

The only disappointment so far has been Emmanuel's chocolate souffle dessert ($5) that goes with the $38 meal; it reveals more of a thick liquid inside than the fluffy, puffy texture expected.

However, the house creme brulee (served with the less expensive prix- fixe meal) possesses perfect custardy consistency along with its correct, crunchy, blow-torched top.

Another example of the Munoz brand of culinary exactitude.

EMMANUEL

Where: 11929 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

When: Open for dinner only from 6 to 10 p.m. nightly except Sunday. (Will open in mid-January for late breakfast and lunch.)

Behind the scenes: Thomas Munoz is chef-owner.

Recommended items: Soup du jour, seared scallops with salsify and Asian greens, warm salad with smoked bacon and goat cheese, seared foie gras and

pears, crispy whitefish on spinach and asparagus, pork chop on sweet potatoes, crispy chicken on ragout of fava beans, beets, pearl onions, venison on mushroom ravioli, creme brulee.

How much: Starters from $5 to $9, entrees from $15 to $19, desserts $5 each. Beer and wine. MC, V.

Wine list: Well-chosen starting list without vintage dates of around 40 labels include halottles, domestics (California, Oregon, New Mexico), wines from France, Portugal and Italy. Prices range from $15 for full-size bottles to $45, 10 under $20. Twenty wines by the glass from $4.50 to $9. Good buy: 1996 Chateau de Beaulieu, Bordeaux Superieur ($19). Corkage: $5.

Reservations: Helpful. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three and one half stars for food; three and one half stars for service; three and one half stars for wine.

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Photo:

Chef-owner Thomas Munoz, left, and manager Faustino Valeriano present pistachio-crusted halibut and mushroom ravioli at Emmanuel.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer