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Welcome to Yokine: a compact, densely populated pocket of the inner-north whose residents of note include the West Australian Golf Club, the Dog Swamp Shopping Centre, plus a diverse dining scene that belies the suburb’s tiny size.

For nearly three decades, The Mighty Quinn has quietly flown the flag for Irish pub culture on Wanneroo Road. At Falafel Omisi, excellent malawach, a splendid version of the Iraqi-Jewish sandwich sabich, plus a plea to “make falafel, not war” are three ways that owner Maor Mentin serves his community. The May opening of A2B’s second Perth outpost, meanwhile, brought Chennai-style vegetarian Indian cooking to the 6060.

Adulis Restaurant is another recent arrival to the neighbourhood’s dining scene. While this understated, 20-seat dining room might be new around here – it opened in February – the restaurant already demonstrates a clear understanding of Yokine’s big-things-small-package mantra. Take, for instance, its beyayineto: one of the most remarkable things I’ve eaten this year.

It starts with a sprawling carpet of injera: the spongy, tangy fermented flatbread synonymous with the cuisines of Ethiopia and Eritrea. (Although Adulis identifies as an East African restaurant, its concise single-page menu is made up solely of dishes from these two neighbouring nations in the Horn of Africa. Sorry Kenya, Sudan, Somalia et al.)

Atop this edible ground cover sits a colourful mosaic of stews and vegetables including hillocks of braised spinach, pickled radishes and puddles of long-cooked lentils. Some dishes bristle with the guttural heat of dried chilli. Others dial back the spice to highlight the personalities of main ingredients. All are designed to be eaten the traditional Eritrean and Ethiopian way by ripping off bite-sized scraps of injera and using them to pinch, scoop and mop up food, kind of like an East African tortilla.

If the thought of saucy fingers and not being able to use your phone at the table makes you nervous, relax. Staff will gladly fetch you some cutlery if you ask. But if it’s been a while since you’ve eaten an entire meal with your hands, please consider. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy the primal, sensual pleasures of putting food in your – or somebody else’s – mouth. Equally surprising is discovering that a dish that’s as gutsy, nourishing and insanely delicious as beyayineto is vegan. (Then again, considering the Ethiopian Orthodox church and its elaborate fasting and abstinence system are both 1700 years old, it makes sense that cooks in this part of the world know a thing or two about making vegetables taste great.)

Not that anything about Adulis’s beyayineto suggests “going without.” It’s served on a platter that’s roughly the size of Optus Stadium and capturing its full splendour would require commandeering the Hubble Telescope for a night. It’s also an utter bargain and a serious contender for Perth’s best-value vegan meal: one beyayineto is $15 and will easily feed two adults with leftovers for the day after.

While chef Eritrea Hadgat offers guests other vegetarian wonders – fried eggplant smothered in a dense peanut sauce is another tick for bold, plant-based deliciousness; finely grated feta cheese and diced hard-boiled eggs help bulk up whipped Eritrean-style ful (fava beans) – she’s equally skilled at interpreting her homeland’s meatier preparations, too.

Doro wat, perhaps the best known of the two countries’ shared culinary repertoire, features chicken drumsticks and hard-boiled eggs suspended in a dense tomatoey sauce that wouldn’t look out of place at Gino’s Spaghetti Bar a few doors down. The slow-burning sting of house-made berbere – a fiery dry spice blend whose exact make-up, like ras el hanout and garam masala, varies from cook to cook – is a pointed reminder you’re dining in Africa, not Europe.

Mitmita, berbere’s tangier, orange-hued cousin, provides the heat fueeling the kitfo, a jumble of lean minced beef or lamb that’s available either cooked well-done or medium-rare. For the latter, imagine a burger patty that’s been grilled half-way and then roughly chopped. Hadgat’s wet rendition of tibs (cooked marinated lamb) feels more stew than stir-fry but its sweet onion base makes it all too easy to like. (It does, however, taste a lot like the alicha yebeg wot, another lamb stew on the menu: something to consider if you’re tossing up between the two.)

Rather than dessert, Eritrean and Ethiopian meals conclude with thick coffee that’s been pan-roasted in-house and, if you like, sharpened with ground ginger. An elegant woven mesob basket filled with warm popcorn is a thoughtful touch; the wispy smoke emitted by a burning square of bakhoor incense is a show of hospitality borrowed from the traditional coffee ceremony. Based on a handful of outings to Adulis, the promise of a hot drink that tastes like home is reason enough for some within Perth’s (East) African diaspora to set course for Yokine.

Make no mistake, this is a restaurant run by its community, for its community. The room features artefacts adorned with Amharic script and posters of Eritrean sports stars Biniam Girmay and Alexander Isak.

The combination of an Ethio-jazz soundtrack and spirited African language conversations gives the space a casual, loungeroom-style energy. Use the call bell at the counter to get the attention of a (otherwise obliging) staff member if you have to. You might be new to these parts, but you’re eager to learn about the deep, rich history of Eritrean and Ethiopian food.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.