 Reviewer Emily VanDerWerff of "The A.V.Club" gave "Small Potatoes" an A, saying that it "isn’t the very best X-Files episode (though it’s certainly up there), but it’s perhaps the easiest episode to call your “favorite,” the most approachable episode, if you will" and that while Gilligan penned better "X-Files" installments later, "he’s never written one as effortlessly playful and inventive as this one.VanDerWerff later called the episode one of the "10 must-see episodes" and named it "Gilligan’s finest comedic achievement".