I really think this depends on the situation. If you have an objet with foreign key relations to a lot of other objects then using lambda syntax is most likely

I really think this depends on the situation. If you have an objet with foreign key relations to a lot of other objects then using lambda syntax is most likely preferred: var res = context.Objects.Include(x=> x.ChildObjects) But if you have to do joins then definitely query syntax is much clearer. For example the join above in lambda syntax looks like this: var query = await context.Objects .Join(context.ObjectChildren, obj => obj.Id, objChild => objChild.ObjId, (obj, objChild) => new { Obj = obj, ObjChild = objChild }) .Where(objAndObjChild => objAndObjChild.Obj.Name == "SomeName") .ToListAsync();