Wellness meets heritage at Süreyya Kahve, West End’s new nutrition-led cafe
From simit topped with stracciatella and honey to smoothies infused with KAILO Nutrition supplements, West End newcomer Süreyya Kahve folds wellness into every corner of its menu. Inspired by Turkish food traditions and contemporary nutrition science, the cafe offers an approachable take on functional dining. Here, eating well is made effortless and intuitive rather than intimidating.
Throughout its entire existence, KAILO has straddled two distinct halves of the wellness space.
When it opened its luxury medispa at The Calile Hotel in 2018, KAILO quickly earned acclaim for bridging the gap between medically oriented treatments and more holistic modalities. Over the years, the brand’s scope has expanded beyond aesthetics to the realm of nutrition, with KAILO launching an innovative range of supplements targeted towards aiding sleep and gut health.
Noticing the growing interconnectedness between wellness and contemporary Australian culture, KAILO co-founder and CEO Kristy Morris and her husband Dr Oz Dedehayir decided that there was a gap in the market to further showcase KAILO’s cutting-edge products in a new form.
Enter Süreyya Kahve – the duo’s striking new West End cafe, where nourishment, heritage and style intersect.
The nosh spot is located at the base of Function Well’s new flagship gym at West Village, with Süreyya Kahve nestled inside the entrance lobby. Though there is a natural alignment with Function Well in terms of shared values, Kristy and Oz reveal that the origins of Süreyya Kahve can actually be traced back to before the high-end gym’s first sod turn.
“The concept really started when we launched into the UAE,” explains Kristy. “We opened a smoothie bar in Dubai, putting our nutrition into the products there and having different types of options. We decided that really we should own our own market – we’re doing this in Dubai, but we should have been doing this in Brisbane.
You might like
“We wanted to do something really different – what brand is infusing their own products into foods?”
When Function Well’s Darren Bain approached the couple to open a smoothie bar at Function Well West End, Kristy and Oz decided the time was ripe to take the concept further. Süreyya Kahve draws inspiration from Oz’s Turkish heritage, using the cuisine as the foundational building block for the eatery’s menu and Oz’s own familial connections as its north star.
“Süreyya is my maternal grandmother’s name,” explains Oz. “As a young boy, I used to eat her food, so there’s a lot of great memories that I carry. When we started to talk about a concept, we thought we could bring that story forward and have a bit of a Middle Eastern, Turkish vibe, but not something that’s over the top.”
Though occupying a small footprint, Süreyya Kahve is richly appointed, with a luxurious colour scheme of deep maroons and golds accentuated by chequered tiles, dark timbers and marble. Inside, seating is confined to two alcove booths, a central table and a few low-set stools, while extra tables can be found outside. The venue’s pivot point is the service counter, which beckons guests inside with a goodie-filled cabinet and humming coffee machine.
“With all of the times we’ve been to Dubai and the times we’ve spent in Turkey together, I told Oz that I didn’t want a summery, vibey feel,” explains Kristy. “To stand out, you’ve got to do something really different – I wanted to have a really deep, cosy feeling, where it feels opulent, but it’s still a cafe.”
Süreyya Kahve menu has been shaped by committee, with Oz laying the groundwork with recipes from his grandmother’s cookbook, before KAILO’s in-house nutritionists and the cafe’s own Michelin-trained chefs applied their signature touches.
Subscribe for updates“Overall, the concept is wellness,” explains Oz. “In the academic world, I work a lot on food innovation, so we try to bring some innovation into our offering. We reduce sugar, increase protein and all the good stuff while still maintaining the taste.”
What results is a menu that deftly moves between recognisable, nutrient-dense dishes and Turkish-inspired signatures. A selection of all-day eats includes stracciatella and honey served with Turkish simit bread, organic Australian oat porridge with rosewater, honey and KAILO’s KN+12 vanilla protein-infused Greek yoghurt, and avocado on toast. Two Turkish-style breakfast spreads are also available – one small and one larger option, both boasting a medley of vegetables, cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, rose jam, dips and bread.
“There’s a lot of authenticity in there – rose jam, for example, is straight from my mother’s rose plant,” says Oz. “When I have breakfast with my family in Turkey it’s a big event – it’s like a big spread and you have all these items.”
The rest of Süreyya Kahve’s menu features sweet treats (including a jaw-dropping tiramisu), sandwiches (made using sourdough from Danny’s Bread), chia puddings, fresh salads and a few variations on overnight oats.
Flip the menu over to look at the beverages and you’ll spy coffee from ST. ALi, immunity-boosting juices, smoothies supercharged with KAILO Nutrition infusions, Turkish teas, a dirty Mont Blanc and matcha-based beverages using high-grade matcha from Róu Matcha in Japan. The smoothies in particular will be a big area of focus for the Süreyya Kahve team, with KAILO Nutrition powering the range, which is set to expand.
“We worked with the nutritionists in our team on the smoothies, the cold drinks and the cold foams, which all have our products in them,” says Kristy. “We’ve got over 30 smoothie recipes, but we’ve started with four for the opening period.”
As the wellness industry continues to grow at a rapid clip, Kristy and Oz understand that it can be an intimidating space to enter for the first time. Rather than positioning wellness as something prescriptive or exclusive, at Süreyya Kahve, Kristy and Oz are folding it seamlessly into everyday rituals, be it a morning coffee, a shared breakfast spread or a post-gym smoothie. It’s an approach that reflects KAILO’s broader philosophy – making health feel intuitive, comforting and deeply enjoyable.
“It’s a bit overwhelming for most consumers to choose to be healthy – it’s hard, there’s so much out there,” says Kristy. “We’re saying, ‘Come here, we’re taking care of your needs and you don’t even have to think about it.’”
Süreyya Kahve is now open to the public – head to The Directory for more information.
Want to see more stories from InDaily Qld in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily Qld as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily Qld". That's it.