In this paper an on-going research effort aimed at detecting and localizing damage in plate-like structures by using mode shape curvature based damage detection algorithm is described. The proposed damage index uses exclusively mode shape curvature data from the damaged structure. This method was originally developed for beam-like structures. In this paper, the method is generalized to plate-like structures that are characterized by two-dimensional mode shape curvature. To examine limitations of the method, several sets of simulated data are applied and the obtained numerical damage detection results are validated by comparing them to results of an experimental test case. Simulated test cases include damage of various levels of severity. In order to ascertain the sensitivity of the proposed method to noisy experimental data, numerical mode shapes are corrupted with different levels of random noise. The modal frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes of an aluminium plate containing mill-cut damage are obtained via finite element models for numerical simulations and by using a scanning laser vibrometer (SLV) for the experimental study.