The first season has been met with a mixed to negative response from critics. On the [[review aggregation]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the first season holds a 30% approval rating with an average rating of 5.25 out of 10 based on 23 reviews. The website's criticalcritics consensus reads, "''Sweetbitter'' fails to live up to its well-received literary source material --– or stand out from the many big-city coming-of-age television series that came before it."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/sweetbitter/s01|title=Sweetbitter: Season 1|work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|accessdate=January 5, 2019|archive-date=November 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117164929/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/sweetbitter/s01|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Metacritic]], which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 52 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/sweetbitter|title=Sweetbitter: Season 1|work=[[Metacritic]]|accessdate=May 13, 2018|archive-date=November 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117164915/https://www.metacritic.com/tv/sweetbitter|url-status=live}}</ref>
