In this paper, a mode shape curvature-based method for detection and localization of damage in plate-like structures is described. The proposed algorithm requires only the mode shape curvature data of the damaged structure. The damage index is defined as the absolute difference between the measured curvature of the damaged structure and the smoothed polynomial representing the curvature of the healthy structure. To examine the advantages and limitations of the proposed method, several sets of numerical simulations are carried out. Simulated test cases considering different levels of damage severity, measurement noise and sensor sparsity are studied to evaluate the robustness of the method under the noisy experimental data and limited sensor data. Applicability and effectiveness of the proposed damage detection method are further demonstrated experimentally on an aluminium plate containing mill-cut damage. The modal frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes are obtained via finite element models for numerical simulations and by using a scanning laser vibrometer for the experimental study.