Complex dto based result sets with EF and MS SQL server
Using a view to produce the complex result set seems to be the best option in my case of the options presented in the question however ...

I found that with a slight architectural change in the business process I wouldn't end up in this situation at all, resulting 2 or 3 simpler requests rather than 1 complex one requiring a "special case" like this to be handled in the call handling logic.