Courtlin’s 2017 Restaurant Bucket List — Final Location! [PHOTOS]

I. AM. DONE.

Well, friends, it's been a heck of a year! Back in January, I swore to you all that I would be expanding my restaurant horizons. I vowed to try a new Eastern Iowa restaurant every month for the entire year, and I exceeded my own expectations. I ate at approximately 18 new restaurants this year, and I couldn't have done it without YOU. I had a ton of listener suggestions over the course of the last 12 months, and although I didn't get to them all, I managed to try a lot of them. One of the most popular restaurants suggested to me was Zoey's Pizzeria in Marion, so that's where I decided to finish out the year.

I want to start by saying that Zoey's was one of my favorite restaurants I tried this entire year. The staff was wonderful, the decorations were perfect, and the food was SO GOOD. We went on a Wednesday night around 7:15, so we had about a 10 minute wait, but it was well worth it.

For our appetizer we ordered the garlic cheese bread. We probably didn't NEED to get two orders, but we did it anyway. I have no regrets.

For the main course, we tried a small Chicago-Style Veggie Combo, which ended up being the perfect size, and then also a large Taco Pizza, because we apparently have a death wish.

Finally, even though we were VERY close to a food coma, we ordered the Zookie. IT. WAS. MAGICAL. I want to build a Zookie house and live inside of it. I would go to Zoey's every day of my life JUST to order a Zookie. So yeah, it was ok.

I'm so glad I waited until the very end of December to try Zoey's. It was the perfect way to finish out the year. Thank you so much to everyone for all of the suggestions this year! And don't worry, I will still be trying new restaurants and blogging about them next year, just not every month (it adds up quick!).