Critical reviews of The Garden of Evening Mists were mostly favourable. The Independent's Boyd Tonkin wrote that "Tan writes with breath-catching poise and grace." He appreciated the combination of "action-packed, end-of-empire storytelling" and Tan's effort to "capture stillness on paper." Meanwhile, Dominique Browning, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described Aritomo as "a fascinating character", and found the book "a strong, quiet novel." Manasi Subramaniam of the Asian Review of Books found the ending "incredibly satisfying," and commented on the writing's "lush beauty and artistry of a Japanese garden." The Guardian's Kapka Kassabova noted that "[i]t is impossible to resist the opening sentence" of the novel: "On a mountain above the clouds once lived a man who had been the gardener of the Emperor of Japan."
