Born in Bangladesh, the founder of the The Khans, Mr Khan, came to the UK in 1970, where he settled in the south of England. Whilst on his travels across the UK, he came to the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton to see a concert. He walked around the area for a while and noticed there was very little in the way of restaurants. While speaking to the owners of the Imperial Palace on Cheapside, he learned that they were looking to exit the trade and so in 1982, after many years of struggling to refine the Bangladeshi cuisine, Khans was born.

At this time South Asian food was seen as a simple late-night trend but Mr Khan wanted the Bilash to be more than that and had a strict 11pm closing time. After struggling on for nearly a decade, a family clientele base grew and the Bilash became one of the most popular places for customers to dine at before shows at the Grand Theatre and Civic Hall. In the 1990s, a business hub was created through Khans, hosting business lunch events daily.