The A.V. Club's "What are you reading in June" feature noted In the All-Night Cafe. Editor Josh Modell calls it a "weird, slightly magical story of a strange place and time that spawned an important band. The great thing is that the book somehow heightens the band’s mystique rather than bursting a bubble."
In the All-Night Cafe was reviewed by the Houston Press, which claimed the book "[A] concise and inviting recollection of how this iconic act came together to record one of the more celebrated debut albums of all time."
"Like a good Belle and Sebastian song, there's power between the lines," says the writer near the end of his lengthy Paste Magazine review of In the All-Night Cafe.