good food in india

Im planning a trip to the northern half of India in March to meet up with my daughter who will be in Kolkata all year on a Fulbright. It looks like we will be in Delhi, some spots in Rajasthan, Varanasi, MP maybe (a posh joint in Maheshwar and Mandu) and of course Kolkata.

Im finding getting good info on everything harder than expected but especially solid info on where to find great food. The regional homestyle stuff, not 5star restaurant chef stuff. Mostly veg, since my daughter doesnt eat meat or fish (but Im going to want it sometimes!) Im starting to believe that the smaller hotels and guesthouses with good local cooks might be the best bets but its hard to get reliable information on this. Any suggestions on how to proceed to find the good stuff? I mean, I know that I want to go to places where there are a lot of people and the food is freshly cooked, but beyond that? Are there areas in towns where decent restaurants are likely to be located? Im not going to have a lot of time to figure this out. Thanks for any help you can give.

I will ask more specific questions about destinations as the time for the trip comes closer.