diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index e1b710e1..2bf253fd 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Enhancements:
    with attribute service (#156)
  - Reduce sql-api communication timeout, and allow overriding (#167)
    [ new sqlapi.timeout directive, defaults to 100 ms ]
+ - Do not query CDB_TableMetadata for queries affected by no tables (#16)
 
 1.8.2 -- 2014-02-25
 -------------------
diff --git a/lib/cartodb/server_options.js b/lib/cartodb/server_options.js
index c7df43c8..ebd23b1b 100644
--- a/lib/cartodb/server_options.js
+++ b/lib/cartodb/server_options.js
@@ -391,23 +391,34 @@ module.exports = function(){
         var key    = req.params.map_key || req.params.api_key;
 
         var cacheKey = dbName + ':' + token;
+        var tabNames;
 
-        me.affectedTables(usr, key, sql, function(err, tableNames) {
+        Step(
+          function getTables() {
+            me.affectedTables(usr, key, sql, this);
+          },
+          function getLastupdated(err, tableNames) {
             if (req.profiler) req.profiler.done('affectedTables');
-
-            if ( err ) { done(err); return; }
+            if ( err ) throw err;
             var cacheChannel = me.buildCacheChannel(dbName,tableNames);
             // store for caching from me.afterLayergroupCreate
             me.channelCache[cacheKey] = cacheChannel;
             // find last updated
-            me.findLastUpdated(usr, key, tableNames, function(err, lastUpdated) {
-              if (req.profiler) req.profiler.done('findLastUpdated');
-              if ( err ) { done(err); return; }
-              response.layergroupid = response.layergroupid + ':' + lastUpdated; // use epoch
-              response.last_updated = new Date(lastUpdated).toISOString(); // TODO: use ISO format
-              done(null);
-            });
-        });
+            if ( ! tableNames.length ) return 0; // skip for no affected tables
+            tabNames = tableNames;
+            me.findLastUpdated(usr, key, tableNames, this);
+          },
+          function(err, lastUpdated) {
+            if ( err ) throw err;
+            if (req.profiler && tabNames) req.profiler.done('findLastUpdated');
+            response.layergroupid = response.layergroupid + ':' + lastUpdated; // use epoch
+            response.last_updated = new Date(lastUpdated).toISOString(); 
+            return null;
+          },
+          function finish(err) {
+            done(err);
+          }
+        );
     };
 
 /* X-Cache-Channel generation } */