katit, FilterOperator.Contains will be translated into a SQL LIKE clause if the "IgnoreCase" option on the PredicateDescription is turned off. By default it's on, so a ToLower method is added to both the property and value clauses, which in turn causes EF to translate the expression using the SQL CharIndex method.
To avoid unexpected results when the filter is empty you can disable the option. When the filter is not empty you may want the option enabled, depending on your database.
var pd = PredicateBuilder.Make(typeof(T), filterBoxRow.FieldName, FilterOperator.Contains, filterBoxRow.GetFilterFrom()));
pd.IgnoreCase = false;
predicates.Add(pd);