text: Cottage Express is almost completely unremarkable as they are one of many fastfood Chinese restaurants in strip malls in a city that has dozens if not hundreds of them They do stand out in a few respects and unfortunately food is not one of them At least not in a good waynnThe first thing that I noticed is that their banner proclaims that this is the fifth location for this enterprise in the Charlotte area Yet strangely I have never noticed another not even as I attempted to find one online while I was creating this review note I did eventually find one place up near El Taco Veloz with a similar name Perhaps a marketing tactic or maybe they are just using another name for this new store Whatever the case it is still odd that not a single other location turns up AnywherennNext up is the staff Generally these small dimlylit quickserve locations are staffed by individuals who do not speak particularly good English yet are generally regarded as being at best one generation removed from whatever country they have decided to represent via their food Not here This staff is instead a couple of teenage girls who are not only definitely American they let you know at every turn they are interested in only your money and the food is well down their list of prioritiesnnFinally instead of being served something that comes up rather quickly by a quick turn in one massive wok you get to choose from a steam table Not quite a buffet because you do not get to go back for seconds and the food on the table does not appear to have been refreshed any time in the last few hours or perhaps days