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. The expected heavy-quark in-medium energy loss in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC is calculated within a model, that is compared to the available heavy-quark quenching measurements at RHIC. The nuclear modification factors and heavy-to-light ratios of charm and beauty mesons are considered. The capability of the ALICE experiment for addressing this phenomenology is discussed.