 Kona Gallagher, of TV Squad, praised "Golden Ticket", especially the final act: "Between Michael's face and Dwight's conference call, the last ten minutes of this episode were absolutely golden." Gallagher said the episode returned to "season one levels of Michael Scott stupidity", and particularly liked the way Dwight so readily accepted credit once the golden ticket promotion proved to be a success. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club gave "Golden Ticket" an A- grade and particularly praised Steve Carell's Willy Wonka impression and the way Michael tried to distance himself after the promotional idea went bad. Rabin said, "Tonight ’ s episode lacked a certain gravity but it delivered the goods, comedy-wise." He also pointed out that the script was technically illogical in that Michael pretended he did not come up with the golden ticket idea despite the documentary camera crew filming his earlier discussions about it.
