At LHC energy, heavy quarks will be abundantly produced and the design of the ALICE detector will allow us to study their production using several channels and with a wide phase-space coverage. The expected heavy-quark in-medium energy loss in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC is calculated within a model that describes the available quenching measurements at RHIC. Several observables are considered, such as nuclear modification factors, heavy-to-light ratios and azimuthal anisotropy of charm and beauty mesons. The capability of the ALICE experiment for addressing this phenomenology is discussed.