Sharepoint - How to avoid _metadata in a REST response (listData.svc)

Well, I am not absolutely sure, but I think the answer is: there is no way to skip metadata property. You may of course create a kind of proxy by implementing a custom web service which itself consumes listdata.svc and truncates the __metadata property? But it doesn't sound good to me.

You can of course skip all other unnecessary properties by defining the properties in an explicit way:

/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/Contacts()?$select=Contact,Account

But I suppose, you already do this.

This metadata biest is still there. I hope someone can disprove my answer :)

Your question implies that you already know the specific item. That makes it easier to isolate the data you want. Each of the lines shown will return a text response as shown below assuming that these are not "special" fields like choice, lookup, etc.

This URL will return christophe

http:/.../_vti_bin/listdata.svc/Contacts(2988)/Contact/$value

This URL will return [email protected]

http:/.../_vti_bin/listdata.svc/Contacts(2988)/EmailAddress/$value

This URL will return Car Rental Inc

http:/.../_vti_bin/listdata.svc/Contacts(2988)/Account/$value