On the first query EF compiles the model. This can take some serious time for a model this large.
Here are 3 suggestions: http://www.fusonic.net/en/blog/2014/07/09/three-steps-for-fast-entityframework-6.1-first-query-performance/
A summary:
- Using a cached db model store
- Generate pre-compiled views
- Generate pre-compiled version of entityframework using n-gen to avoid jitting
I would also make sure that I compile the application in release mode when doing the benchmarks.
Another solution is to look at splitting the DBContext. 400 entities is a lot and it should be nicer to work with smaller chunks. I haven’t tried it but I assume it would be possible to build the models one by one meaning no single load takes 15s. See this post by Julie Lerman https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj883952.aspx