Interesting, coming from Eloquent ORM (PHP), I hated Entity Framework. It seemed to want to do far too much clever stuff (like save an entire object graph at once), and didn't have nearly as many escape hatches as I'm accustomed to (Eloquent will let you inject raw SQL nearly anywhere). I've had positive experiences like ORMs, but only when they are thin layers over the underlying SQL.
What was the problem with raw SQL you ran into with Entity Framework?
Entity framework follows the unit of work pattern from gang of four, and if I remember correctly eloquent follows the active record pattern.
When I started I found the active record pattern much more intuitive, but I prefer the unit of work pattern now. Mostly because I think unit of work works better with transactions/constraints then active record pattern.
