This was the hardest year of Zest's three years of awards to find a top 10 restaurant list. We could easily name another 10 from those that missed out which would amaze and delight.

Whatever style of food, the best restaurants share a few key attributes. They find that sweet spot of balancing flavours and textures, and they use quality ingredients, often local. They are consistent. You get the same whether the head chef/owner is there or not. The waiting staff know the menu and know how to make diners feel good.

Standards are continuing to rise since the quakes - now some of the best dining you'll experience in your life can be found right here in Canterbury.

Guy Frederick Harlequin Public House is the Zest Food Awards top restaurant for 2015.

Winner

Harlequin Public House, 32 Salisbury St

Enjoying a meal out can sometimes be as simple as knowing you are in good hands. You relax knowing the next course will have high-quality ingredients that are perfectly treated, the sauces will be full of flavour, and there will be a surprise twist that delights.

The bistro-style Harlequin Public House has reached just that point in its evolution. That's why it is the Zest Food Awards top restaurant for 2015.

Chef owner Jonny Schwass says Harlequin has matured over the last few years and the focus is now firmly on the food, after initially dabbling with various approaches.

It's stayed the course with its lunch-dinner hours seven days a week.

"We are here for the long haul," he says. "I feel we are finally getting a bit of the soul and sense of purpose of the old restaurant [Restaurant Schwass in Ferry Rd]. We are getting to where I think it should have been at the start."

Try the deeply flavoured mushroom risotto starter served hot and shallow across a wide plate, just as it should be, then follow with a simple chicken breast, leek tied into a knot, buttery potato mash and a chicken sauce to see how special simple things done well can really be.

Finalists:

Saggio di Vino, 179 Victoria St

Saggio is the slick professional that excels with the little things to deliver the perfect dish. It's a calm, dark brown oasis where you can relax knowing you are in polished hands. A tarakihi fillet will come crisp skin side up, on crushed potato with a cured fish brandade, piquant green sorrel sauce, and perfectly cooked, perfectly cut and diced vegetables. The plate will be hot. You won't need any seasoning. Saggio survives and thrives because it delivers.

Freemans Dining Room, 47 London St, Lyttelton

People lean across and talk to each other. There's even a kid's menu. But don't let the small town, laid-back vibe fool you. Freemans delivers dishes of a high standard. The classic pizzas and pastas are some of the best around, but the restaurant goes up a gear with its house specials. Who couldn't resist a whole sweet fleshed pan fried flounder, with sundried tomato, fennel and capers, with the sea and port just 200m away?

Roots, 8 London St, Lyttelton

A visit to Roots throws usual rules out the window. There you are pondering a delicate house made ricotta with deep smoky eggplant puree, a sprinkling of charred eggplant dust and some perfectly cooked small brassicas. You had no idea what was coming. Roots' mystery degustation menu is only revealed dish by dish at the time. But you will know that everything is in season, as local as possible and cooked by perfectionists. The purist approach and expense makes it niche, but this is where to go if you want to know how Canterbury really tastes.

Bamboozle, 151 Cambridge Terrace

The new Bamboozle with its pale green stylised palette is oh so cool. Phillip Kraal's new home in the city oozes class and glass and the wide open kitchen along one wall is a show in its own right. The menu is full of in-jokes. Kraal's blunt approach (peanut allergy sufferers, maybe you should go somewhere else) and the Asian fusion style have carried across from Sumner. Bamboozle serves up lots of flavour bombs but with balance and striking sophistication. Memorable are a fiery kung pao chicken, a crunchy fresh "Yum Yum Kip Chicken Salad" and a dark savoury egg-wrapped bami goreng. Wash it down with homemade ginger beer unlike anything you've tasted before.

Twenty Seven Steps, 16 New Regent St

It's worth the climb. Upstairs on fairytale New Regent St you'll find yourself inside one of the best new restaurant openings in the city. This is the big smoke move from the couple who made Akaroa's Little Bistro something special and it's paid off. The restaurant runs across the top of four buildings. It is beautifully designed with lots of gently quirky touches. The generous dishes are rustic Euro, with big flavours and lots of herbs. The lamb rack comes as five big cutlets, ras-el-hanout braised shoulder meat, vegetables, olive and onions. It's a big, hearty atmospheric, hug of a restaurant.

Pescatore, 50 Park Terrace

Pescatore is elevated in many ways – starting with its location on the George Hotel's second floor and flowing through to the service and its cuisine. Chef Reon Hobson's dishes are elegant and focused. Pescatore makes you feel special from the moment you step into the all-white entrance parlour. It continues with white linen table cloths, a hot facecloth for your hands, quality cutlery and a flow of "gifts" from the kitchen. If it's still on the menu, try the apple tart, possibly the city's best dessert. Its so pretty you won't want to break it open.

Bloody Mary's, 30 Latimer Square

This is the place to get a beef hit and you might as well go all the way. Start with a fantastically flavoured carpaccio, then follow up with one of the many finely detailed steak options. You can argue the finer points of Angus versus Hereford versus Angus/Hereford cross, Wakanui and wagyu if you want and if your group's big enough. But you'll find the city's best steak somewhere here. The ambience is what it is – a hotel restaurant – but this is a carnivore's celebration.

Chillingworth Road, 478 Cranford St

Darren Wright's Chillingworth Road is destination dining in the true sense. It sits in an outlying mall well away from the CBD and even there you have pass through a bar and bistro, to a windowless cave of a room. It's one of the few places where you can still enjoy an intimate dinner for two. The menu's safe but the dishes are well executed. Try the duck with potato gratin, caponata, and a fantastic spiced carrot puree. And the chocolate fondant oozes just like it should.

King of Snake, 145 Victoria St

King of Snake's roast duck and lychee salad is one of Christchurch's great eating experiences. Forget the buzzy atmosphere and the who's who glancing around on a busy night, the food alone is good reason to slip into its exotic embrace. You'll get big punchy flavours and authentic treatment of Asian classics. It's pitched at sophisticated Kiwi, but condiments at the table let you crank up the heat to whatever you want.