"Slant Magazine"s Sal Cinquemani gave the song a rating of B- and wrote: "Like any good throwaway track, 'Beautiful Stranger' doesn't pretend to be much more than it is. Whiny guitars and flutes abound, Madonna and Orbit concocted a perfect theme song for friend Mike Myers's cooky "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Playful, wispy and ultimately forgettable". In August 2018, Paul Schrodt from the same magazine, placed it at number 53 on his raking of the singer's singles, calling it "the antithesis of "Ray of Light". The hooky, psychedelic track is more accessible than Madonna’s previous work with Orbit. The innocuous lyrics could’ve been ghostwritten for anyone, but the song endears due to Madge’s playful delivery and Orbit’s sonic details". Ken Tucker from "Entertainment Weekly", declared it as the "song of the summer", and praised it for being "a piece of psychedelic pop at once so 60s and so 90s that to sully it with a 'shagalicious' joke would be an insult... The way has of making her voice merge into indistinguishability with the surging instrumentation in the chorus, the way she sings the title phrase with an ache in her voice, that's at once urgent and playful." Matthew Jacobs from "The Huffington Post" ranked the song 22 on their list of "The Definitive Ranking Of Madonna Singles". Medium's Richard LaBeau called it a "bold, clever and interesting bridge between the "Ray of Light" and "Music" eras".