 "Lisa the Vegetarian" has received positive reviews from television critics and the staff of The Simpsons. Among the show's staff, Mirkin, Kirkland, Groening and writer Ian Maxtone-Graham list it as one of their favorite episodes. In the DVD audio commentary for the episode, Mirkin called the opening sequence at the petting zoo one of his favorite set pieces in the show's history. He thought it was "absolutely hilarious", and praised Kirkland for his animation. Mirkin also enjoyed the use of Apu in the episode, because Apu shows Lisa that "the way to get people to change is through tolerance and understanding." Groening considers the joke in which the family forms a conga line one of the "high-points" in the history of The Simpsons.
