How to ask the database server for current datetime using entity framework?

Is there a reason you just can't push it down to your database? If you include DateTime.Now in your entity query, it will push it down (getdate) to the database.

Example linq to entities

 var dQuery = dbContext.CreateQuery<DateTime>("CurrentDateTime() ");
 DateTime dbDate = dQuery.AsEnumerable().First();

SQL Generated ..

SELECT GetDate() AS [C1] FROM  ( SELECT cast(1 as bit) AS X ) AS [SingleRowTable1]

Might be a better way to do it ?

This is an update of @Nix response to EF4:

var dateQuery = dbContext.Database.SqlQuery<DateTime>("SELECT getdate()");
DateTime serverDate = dateQuery.AsEnumerable().First();

An update for .net core 2.0

var dual =  databaseContext
            .Set<Dual>()
            .FromSql("SELECT -1 AS Id, GETDATE() AS DateTime")
            .First();

The fake entity

public class Dual
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public DateTime DateTime { get; set; }
}