- Stewart Mason, AllMusic: "CSI: Ambleside [...] is not quite up to those standards [namely, of Achtung Bono], but it's yet another solid outing".[1]
- Dom Passantino, Drowned in Sound: "CSI: Ambleside is one of the peaks in an already unimpeachable back catalogue because it sticks to what makes HMHB such a great band". [...] This isn't the greatest album of HMHB's career, but it's certainly the album that best illustrates what makes them great".[3]
in 2012, Tim Jonze singled out "National Shite Day" for special praise, calling it an "extended moan about the miseries of British life" which is "hilarious and depressingly true. Because sometimes the sum total of global suffering seems like nothing compared to the pain of being shoved off the pavement by an idiot.".[5]