Identifying and developing effective and sensitive detection methods for antimicrobial resistant Salmonella enterica from surface water is a goal of the U.S. National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). No specific microbiological methods used in surveillance efforts for Salmonella enterica or antimicrobial resistant S. enterica in water have been standardized or reported in the U.S. Here we describe a multi-laboratory evaluation of four methods, bulk water enrichment (BW), vertical Modified Moore Swab (VMMS), modified Standard Method 9260.B3 (SM), and dead-end ultrafiltration (DEUF), to recover S. enterica from surface water.