Southern BBQ places have risen in popularity in and around Montreal in the last few years however many restaurants are very similar in that the style is to smoke or cook the meat then slather a bunch of sauce on it. If you have a chance to travel the Southern US you will see there are so many styles of BBQ. Kansas City style is where most Canadian BBQ derives many of it's flavours from. KC style is used with grilled meats usually ribs then basted with a sauce that is more tomato base. You head down to Texas and Texas Pit is King and Brisket rules house. Memphis is known for a ribs and the options are wet or dry rub (which I prefer) with sauce options on the side some infusing bourbon. in the Carolina's pulled pork is King and more of a tangy mustard-vinegar base sauce rules. These are the styles I really know and have experienced in my pre-yelp years.
So.....my experience is biased as I've had the fortunate opportunity to eat some excellent belly busting BBQ.
Diablos is okay but not the best I've eaten. Mediocre at best. I ordered the half rack of ribs with mash potato and house salad with corn relish. Reason it was mediocre. Meat was not fall off the bone. If you have to work at it to chew it it's not exceptional BBQ. Secondly the sauce tasted like it came out of a plastic bottle. No BBQ house should serve what tastes like I can get at my local grocery store. Thirdly an excellent BBQ house should have exceptional sides. These sides were okay but nothing memorable or earth shattering. To wash it down I ordered a Mojito which was one of the worst ones I've had in a while. It came in a mason jar but did not taste very good but I still drank it.
Service was also a bit slow. From the time we ordered it seemed like 30-40 minutes till we received our food out on the terrace. Ribs when done right should be served within five minutes from ordering. The true professionals smoke a huge amount all day and all you need is to warm it up.
If you want to read about true BBQ check out Bucky's BBQ in Greenville, SC. Or else google Dreamland BBQ in Tuscaloosa, AL.
The food here is okay and edible just it takes more to impress me with high quality BBQ. Pricing is a bit higher but that's par for the course in Montreal.
I'd declare Triple Crown Dinette the best so far I've tried in MTL. Rubs is okay similar to diablos but more smoked flavour. My next place to check out is Blackstrap.