looking to visit New York to celebrate my 40th with my wife in September. We are coming over from the UK, and have been to USA 15-20 times but not New York. Looking for a top Hotel as a base and few top restaraunts as well as some interesting ones and places to visit apart from the obvious.

Give more detail: how much do you want to spend per night on a room? When you say "top restaurants as well as some interesting ones," what do you mean? Is cost a consideration? What kinds of food do you like? How "haute"? Are you looking for any special ambience, e.g., romance, buzz, etc. What do you like to do on trips, e.g., museums, history, theater, etc. There's top-notch everything to be had here, so if you make your tastes known, we can help you.

Don't stay at the 4 Seasons. The room we had was VERY small, the employees were not very friendly ( and for the cost of the room they certainly should have been ), and the biggest complaint ---- we had reservations for dinner and when we arrived our table was not ready. We were told to go to the lounge and they would call us when the table was available. That was not a problem because we figured it would be just a little while. They could have offered us a free drink, but they didn't. After 1 hr. of waiting, my husband checked with the maitre d', and he had forgotten about us. We arrive at the dining room (after the guy had said a table would be available in 5 min. - it takes almost that long to walk to the dining room from the lounge), and we had to wait at least another 15min (no place, by the way, to sit down while waiting for your table i.e. there is no room for any seats, that's why you must wait in the cocktail lounge) before our table was ready. At this point, they could have at least offered us a complimentary drink (should have been a bottle at this point!) We wrote the 4 Seasons, but did not get a response that even showed concern. NEVER AGAIN!!! There are so many nice hotels in NYC - who needs them!

I live in NYC, but I know people who come to visit a lot, and the most recommended hotels seem to be
The Four Seasons, The Meridien, and the Peninsula, although the person above obviously had a very bad experience with the FS. The Hilton isn't bad either, larger and more commercial, but still good. A notch above those would be the Carlyle and the St Regis, the latter is I believe the most expensive in New York.
As for top restaurants, there are so many. How many days will you be here? You should try to purchase
a Zagat restaurant guide, they have a website at www.zagat.com, restaurant ratings come from the customers.
My favorite top places are
Le Cirque 2000, Aureole, Gramercy Tavern
(much more than just a tavern), Gotham Bar and Grill, Nobu (Japanese, but there's one in London if you are from there), Peter Luger for steak
(but it's an extra cab ride to Brooklyn),Lespinasse in the St Regis Hotel, La Grenouille, Felidia (Italian).
But there are many other top places that I haven't been to (like highly-rated Daniel) and lots of excellent places that are one rung down from those above, like Mesa Grill for exciting southwestern (US) food. Depending on your activities, there would be other recommendations to provide convenient locations, and some small neighborhood places that are not top-rung but enjoyable and even memorable.
One non-obvious sight-seeing venue that I recommend (and go to myself occasionally) is the Cloisters, which is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum that is devoted to medieval art and artifacts.
It is accessible by public transport.
and the buildings are high on a hill, surrounded by a park. Nice place to picnic if you like. There is a transplanted European cloister, priceless tapestries which are quite famous, etc.
If you need more help, feel free to email. Welcome to New York.

I know my wife finds B&B's much more romantic than hotels, since it is your anniversary, you may want to check out the East River View B&B or the Harbor House B&B. I found them on LodgingDiscounts.com where they have a link to their websites from their ads. I can't say anything based on personal experience maybe some others can comment on these B&B's.