"Weeping Tears of Nostalgia," in The New York Review of Books, Vol. XL, No. 14, August 12, 1993, pp. 29-30. Buruma is a Dutch-born critic who has written several nonfiction works on Asian culture. In the following excerpt, he claims that Kitchen draws upon aspects of traditional Japanese literature and current popular tastes.

In the following review, Garrison perceives the novella Kitchen as a quirky and oddly upbeat examination of a young person's emotional trials.

Grimson is an American novelist and short story writer. In the following review, he perceives a youthful, innocent quality and an emphasis on family life as both the strengths and weaknesses of Kitchen.

In the review below, Hanson values Kitchen as a work about modern, young Japanese.

A journalist, Brown was the 1990–91 recipient of the Gannett fellowship in Asian Studies. In the following review, he provides a thematic analysis of Kitchen.

In the following excerpt, Hornby contends that Yoshimoto blends prosaic and extraordinary elements in Kitchen, yet the desired effect of this fusion is unapparent in translation.