Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) may ravage normal liver tissues apart from the neoplastic nodules which offset the anti-tumor effect. This study aimed to evaluate the recovery of liver reserve function (LRF) after TACE by indocyanine green (ICG) clearance test and other routine liver function tests. Forty-six newly diagnosed HCC patients who had undergone TACE as the initial treatment from January 2011 to January 2012 were enrolled in this study. The effects of age, basic ICG clearance rate and interval time between two assessments on the recovery of LRF were analyzed. We found that ICG retention rate at the 15 minutes (ICGR15) was significantly increased after TACE (12.3±8.1% vs 16.8±12.1%, P<0.01) in all the 46 patients. In particular, the ICGR15 value was increased in older patients (age>55 years, 20.3±12.5% vs 13.7±7.2%, P<0.01). The interval of ICG test also affected the ICGR15 value (≤47 days, 17.8±11.4% after vs 12.1±7.1% before TACE, P<0.01). Our data suggested that TACE decreased LRF, especially in older patients. ICG test was more sensitive to evaluate the recovery of LRF after TACE than the Child-Pugh grade and routine liver function tests.