The Chinese Restaurant - Reception

Reception

"The anti-sitcom: no contrived plots, in fact no plots at all: these people can be funny just waiting to be seated."

When the episode initially aired in the United States on NBC on May 23, 1991, it received a Nielsen rating of 11.7 and an audience share of 21—this meant that 11.7% of American households watched the episode, and that 21% of televisions in use at the time were tuned to it. Seinfeld was the eighteenth most-watched show of the week, and the sixth most-watched show on NBC. NBC executives held a meeting after the broadcast to determine the fate of the show, and decided it would receive a third season order if the writers would put more effort into episode storylines.

"The Chinese Restaurant" received very positive responses from critics and is considered one of Seinfeld's first "classic episodes". Kit Boss, a critic for the Ocala Star-Banner, wrote that the episode was "like real life, but with better dialogue". Various critics and news sources have praised how the episode defines the show's "show about nothing" concept. Critics have also noted that aside from being a turning point for the show, the episode also became a turning point for television sitcoms; one South Florida Sun-Sentinel critic commented that the episode, along with the season four episode "The Contest", " broke new sitcom ground and expanded the lexicon of the '90s." Vance Durgin of The Orange County Register praised how the show "wrung" so much comedy "out of a simple premise". The episode was also included in a list compiled by The Star-Ledger called "50 events that shaped TV – and our lives" between 1900 and 1999. The Charlotte Observer has called "The Chinese Restaurant" the best Seinfeld episode, referring to it "the very epitome of the classic Seinfeld format".

Critics also praised Louis-Dreyfus' and Alexander's performances; The Age critic Kenneth Nguyen stated that they "characteristically, rock their line readings". Michael Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling of Entertainment Weekly, who graded the episode with an A−, commented, "George is at his pressure-cooker best, but it's Elaine—famished and in high dudgeon—who is the centerpiece." David Sims of The A.V. Club gave the episode a A+ saying "it's a deftly-plotted, extremely funny example of the "show about nothing" label that Seinfeld assigned itself".