SINGAPORE - The only Michelin-starred ramen shop in the world will be opening a branch in Singapore next month.

Tsuta, a nine-seat noodle shop in Tokyo, won a coveted star from the respected Michelin Guide last year.

Queues form as early as 6am at the eatery in Sugamo, even though the shop opens only at 11am, said Michelin Guide Singapore.

Chef Yuki Onishi, 37, serves only about 150 bowls of ramen daily - each one priced at 1,000 yen to 1,500 yen (S$13.50 to S$20) a bowl.

The Singapore restaurant, an 18-seater, will open at Pacific Plaza on 9 Scotts Road.

It will offer ramen in three soup bases: a miso soba; a shio soba in chicken-seafood broth, rock salt, red wine and rosemary; and Tsuta's signature shoyu soba.

Mr Onishi said people in Singapore are more used to tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen, but he wanted to introduce shoyu ramen to local taste buds.

"I had never particularly thought of expanding abroad, but what distinguished the Singapore partner was simply the fact that he came, got in line, and actually ate my food. The other people who said they were interested in Tsuta didn't do that," said Mr Onishi.

Michelin Singapore said that Mr Onishi is working with the same company who brought dim sum chain Tim Ho Wan and Hong Kong's Kam's Roast Goose to Singapore.

Like Tsuta, Kam's will open at Pacific Plaza in October.